New Zealand’s hottest young start-up companies had the chance to shine recently when their achievements were recognised at the Gen-i New Zealand Incubators Awards hosted in Wellington by Mayor Kerry Prendergast.

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.