Velocity – The innovation and entrepreneurship programme of the University of Auckland

The Velocity Programme

$100k Challenge

IGNITE

Take your venture to the world and win a share of $100,000

Innovation Seminars

INSPIRE

Get inspired with free talks from innovators and entrepreneurs

Innovation Challenge

INNOVATE

Enter your idea and be in to win $1,000

Innovate 2 Business

INNOVATE

1 day start-up workshop providing knowledge and tools to help craft your idea into a successful venture

Ventures Ignited

Jobs Created

Million in Capital Raised

From the Newsroom

Finalists announced for the 2022 Velocity $100k Challenge

The 15 finalist teams for the University of Auckland’s Velocity $100k Challenge have been announced. Venture ideas have been developed by students and staff that address a range of economic, social and environmental problems. The concepts represent the diversity of entrepreneurial thinking at the University with the ideas including solutions for water issues, sexual consent, mental health, dementia, chronic pain, sustainable packaging and satellites.

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Sugar Wallet app makes investing simple for everyday Kiwis

Sugar Wallet, an app co-founded by alumni Devrath Soni and Sophia Ritchie, is on a mission to make investing easy for the everyday Kiwi. Eighteen months after its inception, it has topped charts in the App Store.

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Alumni venture FormusLabs raises $5m towards AI powered orthopaedic surgery software

FormusLabs, a venture co-founded by University of Auckland Professor Thor Besier and alumnus Dr Ju Zhang, has raised $5m towards their software assisting orthopaedic surgeons with delivering joint replacement surgeries.

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A special thanks to our sponsors

FOUNDING PARTNER

The University of Auckland Business School is proud to be a founding partner of Velocity and to provide on-going support through the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship for the delivery of the Velocity programme. This support is provided in recognition of Velocity’s role in assisting The University of Auckland in its transformation to become a key driver of economic growth of the region and indeed the nation; thereby driving the conversion of New Zealand into a high-value, knowledge-based economy. On this occasion, the Business School would like to salute Velocity for the great contribution it has made to so many students and staff as well as the University and the business community at large.

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GOLD SPONSOR

Auckland UniServices is the commercialisation arm of the University of Auckland. UniServices sees its role as sponsor of the Velocity competition as a natural extension of the pathway for University ideas to ultimately create real opportunities for investment. UniServices owns, protects and manages all the intellectual property which arises out of the academic research in the University of Auckland, and as the steward of this intellectual property we use our commercial management capabilities to take ideas to investors.

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GOLD SPONSOR

Momentum is a national student-led investment committee program which provides access to world class advice, connections, and investment opportunities to students and start-ups across New Zealand.

Our services include connecting technology and project teams with strategic management, top-tier advice and efficient access to capital.

We believe today’s students have the passion and urgency to innovate in ways that will positively impact on their own and future generations.

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SILVER SPONSOR

“Business isn’t a strategy of chance. It’s about taking calculated risks, risks that make a difference. It’s our job to know what you have got and how to leverage it. Hudson Gavin Martin will help you establish intellectual property, exploit intellectual property and secure the appropriate rights to intellectual property. Hudson Gavin Martin will help you find where the value is by understanding the opportunities presented by that intellectual property and how it could be part of your business. Because it’s what the idea is, and how it fits that matters.” For further information, please visit their website.

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SILVER SPONSOR

Bold ideas. Big dreams. We’ll invest in that.
Established in 2002 by the New Zealand Government, New Zealand Growth Capital Partners (NZGCP) invests in early stage Kiwi companies with high-growth potential. They aim to develop and foster a vibrant and self-sustaining New Zealand early-stage ecosystem, primarily through their investment vehicles, the Aspire Fund and Elevate Fund. A number of past Velocity participants and ventures have gone on to be supported by NZGCP.

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