Techweek TV: Increasing investment into Climate Innovation in NZ
What is holding us back from bringing our innovative climate solutions to NZ and the world?
This event does not require registration.
Tuesday 25 May
12:00pm - 12:30pm
VIRTUAL
What's it all about?
Climate innovation presents an opportunity to solve the greatest environmental challenges of our time – while creating a dynamic, high-value export industry to boot. But, in many cases, these innovations are not translating into real world applications or commercial opportunities – so what is holding us back? Early research suggests the problem may lie within the lack of investment capital available to Kiwi climate innovators. Join us as we discuss the challenges of securing capital to back Kiwi climate innovation, and how Kiwi innovators can navigate the complex climate investment ecosystem.
Speakers
James is Callaghan Innovation’s Business Innovation Advisor for CleanTech and HighTech Products where he works with a highly skilled team to grow businesses bringing about a stable climate, smart resource use and clean water. James has worked globally with businesses and governments to incorprate environmental considerations into strategy. James has held senior positions in environmental professional services firms including leadership of a $20m consulting business. In 2018, he founded Crunch & Flourish which develops scalable digital overlays for system-wide environmental challenges. James has master’s degrees in engineering science, ecosystems analysis & governance and creative writing, and is a certified energy risk professional.
Bex is CEO and co-founder at ZeroJet, an innovative startup working on solving a massive pollution problem in the marine industry. ZeroJet partners with boat builders to provide a turnkey electric jet propulsion system for boats. The business aims to replace 10,000 combustion outboards within five years. Bex is a chartered accountant and has been working on growing various startups in the marine space over the past seven years.
Molly is an investment manager at New Zealand Growth Capital Partners (NZGCP), a Crown equity investment agency. Molly evaluates and supports early-stage businesses through the Aspire NZ Seed Fund program. She has more than 12 year's investment and portfolio management experience, including work for US and Chinese venture capital and private equity funds in Shanghai, China. Molly is passionate about the ClimateTech and healthtech sectors, and has worked with many startups on capital raising, operation, sales and marketing, international market expansion and governance. Molly has a Master of Applied Finance degree from Macquarie University in Sydney.
Lance is the primary contact for most of Punakaiki Fund’s existing and new investments, and is a director of 11 of the fund's portfolio businesses. He was formerly a director of Linewize and of Devoli. Lance started working on what would become LWCM and Punakaiki Fund in late 2012, and, with co-founder Chris Humphreys, has made 80 different investment placements since the formal launch of Punakaiki Fund in April 2014. Lance combines a wide variety of global experience with helping high-growth companies in New Zealand.