2023 Awards Winners
The KiwiNet Awards celebrate heroes in research commercialisation — those individuals and organisations whose best practice approach is changing the innovation landscape in New Zealand. We congratulate the 2023 winners!
Commercialisation Icon Award
This is KiwiNet’s highest honour given to a quintessential champion of New Zealand’s research commercialisation community. This individual has a high level of aspiration for research commercialisation as a catalyst to deliver prosperity for all. This is demonstrated by their unwavering commitment to substantially advancing the cause and activity of commercialisation of publicly funded research within New Zealand. Their body of work has made an outstanding impact on the research commercialisation ecosystem.
Duncan Mackintosh - Brandon Capital
An inspirational leader who has helped shape NZ’s research commercialisation ecosystem.
Duncan Mackintosh has helped shape the research commercialisation ecosystem in New Zealand, with significant contributions to research, science, and innovation over the past 20 years – providing leadership, management and governance expertise, mentorship, access to networks, and fostering an exemplary collaborative spirit.
Duncan believes that research commercialisation is a catalyst to deliver prosperity for all and works tirelessly to ensure research commercialisation is supported in New Zealand at all levels.
Duncan is the founder of several start-up ventures and has held many governance and leadership roles. He has added value to hundreds of research projects, reviewed and curated hundreds of investment opportunities, and attracted millions of dollars of committed capital in the sector. This, in turn, has created numerous jobs and significantly advanced the respective underpinning research programs.
Since 2016, Duncan has led New Zealand operations at Brandon Capital. Via Brandon BioCatalyst, he has been instrumental in facilitating the inbound global capital, capability, connections and expertise NZ research institutes need to realise their full potential.
Before this, Duncan was the Chief Executive of WaikatoLink, the University of Waikato commercialisation company, following several years as General Manager of Commercialisation. Duncan established several new ventures from University of Waikato IP. He also led a range of initiatives, one of the most impactful being the co-led establishment and launch of KiwiNet in 2011, a consortium of 19 NZ universities, Crown Research Institutes, and other research organisations, laying important foundations for Aotearoa’s now internationally renowned collaborative model of research commercialisation.
During his career, he has championed many other impactful initiatives to support researchers, STEM-focused women in leadership pilot (WILD), a national clinical trials network, BioTechNZ animal health networking series and an early-career scientist engagement program. He is currently an executive chair of Amaroq Therapeutics, Cadmus Animal Health and director of TamoRx and DEC NZ.
Momentum Student Entrepreneur Award
This award recognises a highly motivated university student who looks beyond the science and sees the prize - how their idea can change the world. The student is making outstanding contributions to business innovation or has created innovative businesses in New Zealand. This could be through technology licencing, start-up creation or by providing expertise to support business innovation.
Monique Lau: Endosoothe / University of Canterbury
Reimagining menstrual care through innovation and community
Having lived with endometriosis, Monique has first-hand experience not only of the discomfort and stigma surrounding endometriosis and menstruation, but also of the efficacy of her innovation. Add a background in chemical formulation, and the value proposition becomes more and more enticing.
Endosoothe is committed to redefining the menstrual experience by offering a comprehensive range of products that address the challenges women face during their menstrual cycles. They provide a range of thoughtfully crafted menstrual care products using natural active ingredients that prioritise comfort, sustainability and effectiveness.
One of the standouts of this project is the community that Endosoothe is building online prior to product launch; emphasising their commitment to education, raising awareness and support rather than just selling product. This also informs a unique human-centred market research approach that targets consumers directly to inform product development and remain transparent with regard to information, solidifying the trust of the community affected before investigating medical regulation.
Monique is an active and valued member of UC's entrepreneurial community, and we commend her on continuing her commitment to community through her product.
Sprout Breakthrough Innovator Award
This award recognises an upcoming entrepreneurial researcher who is making outstanding contributions to business innovation or is creating innovative businesses in New Zealand. This could be through technology licencing, start-up creation or by providing expertise to support business innovation.
Dr Sean Feast - Precision Chroma / University of Canterbury
Pioneering 3D printed chromatography to transform the separations industry
Dr Sean Feast, Founder and CEO of Precision Chroma, is playing a critical role in commercialising a new method of chromatography that greatly simplifies the manufacture of important biologic pharmaceuticals, making life-saving medicines more accessible.
In 2017, Sean joined the University of Canterbury 3D porous media research team as a master’s student, supervised by the technology inventor Professor Conan Fee. He quickly saw industry potential for their technology. Sean spent his PhD developing it for different applications and showing pathways for scaling the technology to make it commercially viable.
Sean led Precision Chroma’s spinout at the start of 2022, securing seed funding from Bridgewest Ventures and Callaghan Innovation.
Precision Chroma has the potential to disrupt the $8.5B bio-separations industry with its next-generation 3D printed chromatography columns. The technology can reduce processing times by up to two days at commercial scale. This innovation streamlines three essential processes into a single step, eliminating costly consumables and equipment expenses that could provide up to $300 million in savings for the industry.
In just over a year, Sean has built and led an effective team to hit key milestones, successfully navigated the company through pivoting to a new target application, achieved vast scale-up from lab to pilot scale, and developed further valuable IP. He is also currently leading the company through its first capital raise.
In 2022, Sean was awarded the YES Alumni Innovator of the Year award and was a finalist for the Hi-Tech Young Achiever 2023. Sean is also an active advocate and mentor in the start-up community and is passionate about supporting and inspiring the next generation of breakthrough innovators.
BNZ Researcher Entrepreneur Award
This award recognises an entrepreneurial researcher who has made outstanding contributions to business innovation or has created innovative businesses in New Zealand. This could be through technology licensing, start-up creation or by providing expertise to support business innovation.
Professor Rod Badcock - Robinson Research Institute - Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington
Building an emerging clean tech economy taking New Zealand’s expertise to the world.
Professor Rod Badcock is the Deputy Director and a founding member of Paihau – Robinson Research Institute at Victoria University of Wellington. He is recognised as a pioneer in the field of applied superconductivity, focusing on accelerating this technology into new applications such as generators, motors, power transformers, medical imaging systems, electric space propulsion and high field magnets.
Rod is currently leading New Zealand’s contribution to an international effort to decarbonise transport. His team is developing cutting-edge work on electrifying aviation and other heavy transport, which has attracted interest from the industry's top global players and promises to put New Zealand at the forefront of an emerging global electric aircraft motor market, estimated to be worth more than $200 billion USD by 2050.
As a champion of New Zealand's innovation system, Rod fosters an entrepreneurial environment at the Robinson Research Institute, urging students to design innovations that address problems in the real world beyond the lab. This has resulted in the spin-out of exciting new companies like OpenStar Technologies and the international success of domestic start-ups like HTS 110. Cleantech development company Fabrum, which recently closed a $23 million funding round, has a very strong collaborative relationship with Robinson Research Institute and has also benefited from Rod’s support and valuable assistance in accessing the international superconducting market.
Rod is pushing the envelope on what's possible with superconductivity, with a focus on applying the technology to transition to a clean, sustainable future. He has played a key role in establishing the Robinson Research Institute as a world-leader in mission-oriented superconductivity research.
Simpson Grierson Commercialisation Professional Award
This award recognises a commercialisation professional working within a New Zealand research organisation who has made an outstanding contribution to the commercialisation of publicly-funded research.
Kevin Sheehy - MacDiarmid Institute
Effective support for deep tech entrepreneurs, start-ups, and the ecosystem
Kevin is a highly accomplished commercialisation professional whose work has a deep and wide-ranging impact nationally.
In Kevin's core role supporting deep tech and cleantech researchers within the MacDiarmid Institute, he oversees a pipeline producing 2-3 affiliated start-ups per year. Since Kevin joined the Institute, it has spun out nine deep tech innovations. He tangibly contributes to success- at all points along that pipeline – from supporting new PhD students through to guiding founding professors. The MacDiarmid Institute affiliated startups he supports have raised over $13M of investment to date.
His impact also extends to the wider deep tech sector. Kevin has established several valuable forums for entrepreneurs and commercialisation professionals across NZ; he is a mentor to others in the space; and in 2022 he helped organise a New Zealand delegation of 14 companies to attend the 'Cleantech Forum Asia' in Singapore which led directly to at least two international partnerships.
Significantly, Kevin has recently been involved in highlighting the need to enhance support for scale-up of NZ deep tech companies, drawing many stakeholders together into constructive discussions and presenting the findings to the government.
Kevin is a tireless champion for the wider ecosystem, adept at identifying the people and projects with potential, and building relationships between entrepreneurs, TTOs (the transfer offices), investors and others. He plays a key role in MacDiarmid's ongoing success in commercialising world-changing research.
PwC Breakthrough Project Award
This award recognises a project that demonstrates best practice commercialisation of publicly-funded research.
Bspkl – GNS Science
Activating sustainability through innovative manufacturing.
In 2023, Bspkl became the first start-up to be formed from IP arising from GNS Science and NZ’s first hydrogen deep-tech start-up.
The result of over a decade of work by Dr. Jérôme Leveneur in the Materials Science team at GNS Science, Bspkl was developed as a breakthrough approach to scalable manufacturing of Catalyst Coated Membranes (CCM) for hydrogen production, while significantly limiting the need for precious metals. Bspkl’s technology has significant potential to overcome supply chain constraints and support the rapid growth of the global clean hydrogen industry.
Bspkl was spun-out in April 2023 with a $2.8m capital raise, led by WNT Ventures, and with co-investment from local and overseas investors.
Its commercialisation journey highlights the power of collaboration between public research and private venture capital to create a perfect combination of public good and Commercialisation Impact: the collective effort between the team at GNS Science, WNT Ventures and Bspkl ensured the best commercial outcome for all parties involved; and the deal ensured the founders are well incentivised through their equity holding, the IP is secured within the company, and the CRI remains a shareholder.
With Jérôme now CTO, and Co-Founder Christina Houlihan as CEO, Bspkl has established its own facility in Lower Hutt where it is scaling manufacturing of the CCMs, to support the world's transition to a more sustainable future.
Bspkl co-founders Dr. Jérôme Leveneur and Christina Houlihan
MAS Commercialisation Impact Award
The commercialisation impact award celebrates excellence in research commercialisation delivering outstanding innovation performance and the potential for generating significant economic impact for New Zealand.
XFrame and Wellington UniVentures
Reusable framing for the next generation of sustainable construction
Approximately half of all New Zealand’s waste—about 1.6 million tonnes every year—is generated by the construction sector.
XFrame, a game-changing framing system, has the potential to eliminate waste and reduce the raw materials used by the building industry. Every component of the XFrame system is designed to be disassembled 40% faster than conventional building methods and reused at the end of the building lifecycle —an architectural solution promising to transition the building sector to a circular economy without compromising the growth and development of communities.
Developed by Ged Finch while completing his Master’s in Architecture at Victoria University of Wellington, XFrame has experienced rapid growth supported by investment, expertise and connections through Wellington UniVentures, KiwiNet and Innovyz.
Since its spin-out in 2019, XFrame has closed three successful capital raises and delivered projects to tier one customers in New Zealand, Australia, the United States and Brazil. In its first year of public sales, XFrame kept six tonnes of construction waste out of the landfill and sequestered 35 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Now fast approaching broad market release, and with revenues increasing 14-fold, XFrame is a stellar example of a commercialisation project made possible by ecosystem support, scaling rapidly with huge potential for impact.
XFrame founder Ged Finch
