by Metropol | October 28, 2026 8:33 am
Headquartered in Ōtautahi, the Ministry of Awesome equips startups with essential advisory support, expert mentorship, a vibrant community, and strategic connections to accelerate their success.
Founded in 2012 by Kaila Colbin, Sam Johnson, Vicki Buck and Sasha McMeeking, it was an engine for collaboration around imagining and building a vision for Christchurch, which at the time was a city of rubble. They’ve since partnered with groups such as Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment (MBIE), ChristchurchNZ, Ara Institute and Electrify Aotearoa.
Part of the Ministry’s work is facilitating a Founder Catalyst programme four times a year, where startup founders work closely with an established entrepreneur who will work on helping them with deep customer understanding, rapid market traction, and global scale.
The latest cohort of 10 startups are the following:
1. Penny, founder Samuel Nobilo
A fully-integrated finance management platform for motor dealers, brokers, and retailers, Penny is a custom software platform that helps businesses submit their finance applications to lenders with the click of a button. pennycrm.co.nz
2. mA.I Health, founders Susan Green & Arlene Goodwin
Inspired by her son Luca’s complex medical journey, including a congenital heart defect, stroke, Autism, ADHD, Anxiety, and Epilepsy, Arlene Goodwin realised having all medical information in one place is crucial for making informed decisions and ensuring better health outcomes. The mA.I Health app keeps all your family’s medical information in one place. maihealthapp.co.nz
3. Alyrt, founders Luke Stopford, Larissa Logan and Craig McColl
You’re working hard and it’s busy, but revenue isn’t growing. With a 90-day cashflow forecast, Alyrt shows you where it’s getting stuck, and the one move that gets things climbing again. alyrt.ai
4. Quliance, founder Preety Sehgal
Quliance keeps your early childhood education (ECE) health and safety compliance, audit-ready and organised, every single day. quliance.com
5. Ripple, founders Lachlan Scown & Trevor McIntyre
On a mission to eliminate meeting overload and help teams work smarter, faster, and with greater focus, Ripple helps teams shorten the meeting cycle, focus on what matters, and accelerate execution. ripple.team
6. RossOps, founders Josh Wyllie & Loïc Estier
Named after an engineer at Nestle, RossOps captures the knowledge trapped in experts’ heads and fragmented systems, and turns it into answers that lift productivity, improve safety and cut downtime. rossops.com
7. Talkscape, founder Peter Carswell
Designed to drive meaningful change, TalkScape transforms spoken feedback into actionable insights using cutting-edge AI and voice technology. talkscape.com
8. Task Helper, founders Carlee Laws & Maria Holic
Your to-do list, handled. Connect with vetted local helpers for cleaning, gardening, assembly, and more. Or join as a helper and get paid on your schedule. taskhelper.co.nz
9. YNova, founders Tamil Gunasekaran, Xuehua Bonnie Fu, Helen Zipei Liu
NOVA is an AI tutor for the English tests that open international education. It scores your practice on the four IELTS Speaking criteria, coaches in your own language, and never invents your answer. IELTS Speaking is live and free to start. ynova.ai
10. Birdeey, founder Vanesha Din
Bland job posts and generic interviews result in misaligned hires. Recruitment platform Birdeey redesigns your hiring process around what predicts success: alignment. birdeey.com
Source URL: https://metropol.co.nz/future-unicorns/
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