Two of our incubated companies have scooped top awards at the TUANZ 2008 Innovation Awards held last night in Auckland.

TracPlus has been announced as New Zealand overall winner of the Telecommunication Innovation of the Year Award for the most innovative product, service, or initiative overall developed in New Zealand, and delivered electronically to New Zealanders.

TracPlus has also been awarded winner of the Initiative of the Year category, for a product, service or application facilitated or enabled by, the innovative use of technology in New Zealand, or by a New Zealand company overseas.

TracMap was awarded the Rural Award for “the most innovative rural product, service or initiative developed in New Zealand, and delivered electronically to New Zealanders, which enhances productivity in the rural sector, whether it be in agribusiness, farming, the dairy industry, horticulture or otherwise.”

The TUANZ (Telcommunication Users Association of New Zealand) Awards in association with General Cable are a prestigious annual awards ceremony, which recognises outstanding innovation within the telecommunications arena in New Zealand. The awards are for products or services originating or provided in New Zealand. Chris Hinch, CEO of TracPlus Global Limited and Colin Brown, Managing Director of TracMap NZ Ltd were in Auckland to receive the awards at the Auckland Museum Auditorium, The Domain.
Upstart CEO Norman Evans says, “these awards show our companies getting the industry recognition they truly deserve. TracPlus and TracMap are examples of exciting innovative companies being developed right here in Dunedin. Other successful companies under incubation are Vouchermate Ltd, Daestra NZ Ltd and Innovative Learning”.

The Gen-i sponsored awards underlined the growth of New Zealand’s incubation industry, with the winning companies representing everything from robotics and GPS tracking, through to wireless power solutions and mobile banking.

Recent winners of the Global Technium Challenge, TracPlus, won the Start-up Exporter of the Year Award with their revolutionary tracking service for commercial, government and non government agencies that is now operating in 14 countries and areas, including the Antarctic. TracPlus allows users to not only monitor the status and location of their assets, but also to securely share that information with other users, regardless of tracking hardware and network chosen.

The full list of this year’s winners:

• Start-up Exporter of the Year: TracPlus Global Ltd from Upstart in Dunedin.
• Start-up of the Year: INRO Technologies Ltd from The ICEHOUSE in Auckland.
• Start-up Entrepreneur of the Year: eBUS’s Carmine Masiello from The ICEHOUSE in Auckland.
• Innovation of the Year: PowerbyProxi Ltd from The ICEHOUSE in Auckland.
• Hall of Fame Award: Mobile Mentor and M-Com, both from The ICEHOUSE in Auckland.

TracPlus Global Limited is a finalist for three out of the four categories of the Incubator Awards; Start-up of the Year, Start-up Exporter of the Year and Start-up Entrepreneur of the Year.  It is also a finalist in the TUANZ award category of Initiative of the Year for 2008.

TracMap NZ Limited is a finalist for the fourth of the Incubator Award categories, Innovation of the Year, and is a finalist for the following TUANZ Awards; Initiative of the Year 2008, Mobile Application of the Year, Rural Award and ICT Innovator of the Year (Managing Director Colin Brown).

Although the company names have a similar sound they are two very different businesses.  

TracPlus is the recent winner of the Global Technium Challenge.  It has developed a revolutionary tracking service for commercial, government and non government agencies that is now operating in 14 countries and areas, including the Antarctic. TracPlus allows users to not only monitor the status and location of their assets, but also to securely share that information with other users, regardless of tracking hardware and network chosen.

TracMap provides a complete agricultural and horticultural GPS guidance and proof of placement mapping package for vehicles operating in demanding outdoor environments. For fertiliser spreading contractors it can achieve a 15% productivity gain and reduce environmental impact from fertiliser application. In less than two years TracMap has grown from 2 to 14 staff, sold over 300 units nationally and developed a product variant for the aviation industry.

Upstart CEO, Norman Evans is delighted to have finalists in so many award categories and says, “It is rewarding for us to see our companies being given the recognition they truly deserve.  Dunedin is a hot-bed of innovation and entrepreneurs and these companies are two more examples of the exciting innovators that are coming out of the city at the moment.  Since starting the incubator in 2004 we have worked with some truly outstanding companies.”

Winners of the Incubators NZ Awards will be announced on 5 August at a function in Wellington and the TUANZ winners will be announced on 28 August at a function in Auckland.

All investors are New Zealand based.

It can be hard to know what investors expect, or even know how to get their attention. The $unlimited Investment Challenge will tell you what they are looking for, help you get ready and then put you right in front of them!

From last year’s Challenge one company has confirmed investment of NZ$1,000,000 and up to a dozen other companies are in different stages of discussion/negotiation for varying sums of money. We were also able to introduce four companies to UK investors through UK Trade & Investment’s Global Entrepreneurs Programme.

If you think your business idea is the next big thing and need to secure funds to grow your business into the UK market and beyond, the 2008 $unlimited Investment Challenge is for you.

The International Technium Challenge is a worldwide, high-profile business planning competition to identify and support innovative businesses with growth potential. The global competition is organised each year by International Business Wales (IBW) and Technium UK, and gives one company from dozens of international competitors, a UK business passport to open an office in Wales establishing a beachhead into the lucrative European market.

1000Minds, a University of Otago-based company, has won a prestigious Consensus Software Award in Australia. Sponsored by Microsoft and IBM, Consensus Software Awards are the only independently judged awards for Australian and New Zealand software.

Delighted to be short-listed as a finalist, co-inventor of 1000Minds and Associate Professor in the Department of Economics, Dr Paul Hansen was extremely pleased to hear 1000Minds announced as a winner at a gala event in Sydney on Tuesday night (1 May).

“Everyone involved with 1000Minds has worked very hard over recent years at refining our systems and methodologies, and at establishing a national and international client base of users of the software.”

Intergen Managing Director Tony Stewart says the merger brings to Intergens clients increased access to some of the most creative and forward thinking software developers in the country. “The merger enables us to offer our clients full service across all the main centres and makes it the biggest exclusive Microsoft provider in New Zealand”.