Auckland mayor Wayne Brown plots tech take off with new innovation alliance

Tuesday, 20 May 2025

The mayor believes Auckland is the best location in NZ for a tech hub.

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown announces Innovation and Technology Alliance to boost city's tech ecosystem.

The alliance aims to foster public-private collaboration, attract capital, create high-paying jobs in Auckland.

Brown aims to prevent 'brilliant ideas' from dying due to lack of support.

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has announced the creation of an Innovation and Technology Alliance, aimed at supercharging the city’s tech ecosystem.

Brown is hopeful the alliance will foster stronger public-private collaboration, attract capital, boost productivity and bring more high-paying jobs to Auckland.

The announcement was made during the Auckland Innovation Forum, a key event of TechWeek 2025, which Brown opened on Tuesday.

“This is the century of software, AI, robotics, and Indo-Pacific growth—and Auckland is well placed to lead,” Brown said. “But too many great ideas in this city never scale. That’s a leadership failure, and I intend to change that.”

Wayne Brown believes Auckland is the best suited city in New Zealand for a thriving tech hub.

Brown was prompted to instigate this after the 2023 Committee for Auckland State of the City report highlighted the city’s underperformance in innovation and connectivity.

“The tech sector is full of brilliant ideas, but it’s fragmented. We lack coordination, capital pathways, and the ability to scale. It’s time to join the dots.”

The Auckland Innovation and Technology Alliance will bring together public agencies, investors, research institutions, and the private sector to address what Brown regards as four critical barriers: capital, research, talent, and scale. It will have a focus on foodtech, medtech, biotech, and fintech.

Brown stressed that Auckland’s economic future relies on shifting from low productivity and long hours to high-value, scalable innovation.

“New Zealand is one of the least productive OECD countries. We work longer, but produce less,” he said. “We need to lift real GDP per capita—and Auckland must lead that charge.”

Wayne Brown says New Zealand is one of the least productive countries in the OECD, but this could be changed by investment in technology and innovation.

Last week, science, innovation and technology minister Dr Shane Reti announced the Government is investing $71 million over seven years into an advanced technology science platform hosted by the Robinson Research Institute, based out of Victoria University of Wellington.

But the mayor called on the government to establish an Advanced Technology Institute in Auckland, rather than Wellington, arguing the city is better positioned to support startups and commercialisation.

“As New Zealand's only global city, we are the obvious place for this,” Brown said.

“The institute could play a crucial role in guiding new startups through the system, so ideas don't die on the vine.”

Brown raised the possibility of tools like KiwiSaver to fund local startups, and called for smarter use of government data, like tax return insights, to spot promising ventures early.

Icehouse Ventures chief executive officer Robbie Paul says there are strong foundations for growth in the Auckland tech scene.

“Rocket Lab made it despite us, not because of us. We can’t keep letting ideas die. We need to support innovators with real pathways, real investment, and real collaboration,” he said.

Brown says he hopes a vibrant tech industry would encourage young New Zealanders to stay in the country.

“Let’s open up Auckland, so our young people don’t need to leave New Zealand to find opportunity,” he said.

“We’ve always been innovators. It’s time to lead again.”

Robbie Paul, CEO of Icehouse Ventures, which invests in early-stage companies, says tech businesses in Auckland are doing well, but could always do with more support.

“ The tech scene is in a great place, and Auckland specifically, has really strong foundations for growth,” Paul said.

“You see a lot of recycling of talent. We're seeing more sizable cash exits and companies becoming quite large. Auror, Kami, Tradify, Halter and Crimson, by my count, their Auckland-based payroll would be over $240,000 a day, and importantly, the vast majority of this is funded by export revenue and/or international investors.

However, Paul feels that better connectivity between the public and private sectors would be a positive.

“Anything that injects more energy and more focus into the space is a good thing, so I'm all for it,” he said.

“Entrepreneurs have an insatiable appetite for capital, support and connectivity, and in aggregate, they also have proven that they're very good at converting those things into a lot more value for everybody. So let's rule this very specific part of the economy that can make Auckland have a much brighter future.”