Finalists have been named for the both the Gen-i New Zealand Incubator Awards and the Telecommunications Users Association of New Zealand (TUANZ) Awards - and Dunedin companies incubated by Upstart Business Incubator feature strongly in both lists.

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.