World-class Wellington: Tech sector worth billions, but could be so much more

Friday, 2 July 2021

Wellington tech firms relate their Covid experiences (supplied footage).

Editorial: Wellington has its Golden Mile: a ribbon of concrete that extends from Parliament, through much of the capital’s shopping precinct and deep into its hospitality quarter. But it also has a golden triangle of tech companies creating many tens of millions of dollars in revenue and bringing in hundreds of new jobs.

They are next-generation companies that have just as much vision and potential as those in Silicon Valley. They are world class companies, right here in Wellington.

They’re start-ups like CoGo, an increasingly global venture focused on making better decisions for the planet and those living on it; and Melon, a health tech firm helping people around the world manage and potentially defeat various medical and mental afflictions.

In between are numerous other businesses, in the co-working spaces and upper levels of inner-city buildings where the lights often burn deep into the night.

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Ben Gleisner, founder of tech firm CoGo, says the industry needs a champion within government.

But are we doing enough here, in the capital, to ensure that these entrepreneurs can flourish and create an economy for the future? Wellington can not trade off its coffee culture forever.

Collectively these ambitious, home-grown businesses could follow in the wake of others who sprang from small beginnings in the capital, including Xero, TradeMe, Sharesies and PikPok.

New Zealand’s tech sector is already one of the country’s biggest earners, contributing $12.7 billion to the economy in 2019, including $9.4b in exports. And NZTech chief executive Graeme Muller says it could be worth $16b by 2030.

That’s great news, but it could be so much better. We could be getting there even faster.

And Wellington, with its strong start-up culture and outstanding creative community, could be its indisputable capital.

Ben Gleisner, of CoGo, says the city and country are leaving tens of billions in export earnings on the table. Mel Gollan, of Wellington-based RIP Global, suggests the opportunity in just her small part of the financial technology market is a decent slice of a trillion dollars.

Mel Gollan, founder and chief executive of RIP Global, is chasing a slice of what she believes is a trillion-dollar global business.

This golden opportunity is being wasted because of another common theme: the struggle for funding to go from start-up to scale-up, and also the skilled staff to drive that change.

Gleisner says the Government could play a key role, but it “doesn’t get” the tech sector. It needs a “champion” for the industry, and the kind of support lavished on the film business.

That support enabled movies to be made in this country and overseas workers to cross borders closed to so many others during the pandemic.

The tech industry has not been so lucky, despite the difficulty filling specialised roles, and the potential value of those people to this economy.

Those movies would have been eligible for the NZ Screen Production Grant, which can refund up to 40 per cent of spending for a production filmed in this country.

Again, such largesse is not extended to the tech industry, despite its clearly demonstrated value and potential growth.

The Government has formulated aDigital Technologies Industry Transformation Plan

but it will take some time to implement, creating a risk that opportunities will be lost and growth squandered.

Perhaps because we didn’t get it, perhaps because of “tall poppy syndrome,” we often have been too slow to champion the talented Kiwis in our midst. We haven’t realised they were world class until they took their talent overseas.

Let’s not let that happen again. We must make sure these pioneering Wellingtonians can thrive right here. We will be the better for it.