Three startups to watch in 2023

Venture capital may be suddenly more difficult amid a slowing economy and rising interest rates, but three smart startups are still set to expand in 2023.

Kai’s education

Kai Education KaiBot is still one
is only months away from release, but the miniature, AI-powered robot is already gaining international recognition.

In early December, Kaibot won the Learn-to-Code category at the Smart Toys Competition in Dubai – an event run in partnership between the Dubai Future Foundation and the World Economic Forum, designed to highlight the best emerging AI (artificial intelligence) educational toys.

“Kai” is te reo Māori for food. In this context, founder Bruce Jackson pitched it as “food for the brain”.

KaiBot is used in conjunction with physical cards and visualization software to help five to 15-year-olds learn the principles behind software programming. After scanning a series of cards, it will perform a series of moves on the floor or on special KaiTiles.

Pakuranga-based Jackson was able to self-fund Kai’s Education, thanks to the runaway success of a company he founded in 2010 – 3D Printing Systems, which became the largest distributor of 3D printers in New Zealand.

He’s already had an international hit with Kai’s Clan, an AR and VR-friendly robot that integrates with Minecraft.

If you haven’t heard of it, that’s because Jackson concentrated a lot of his sales efforts offshore.

Endorsements on his website feature teachers from Mississippi and Texas, along with an educator from Raumati.

Jackson eschews big retailers, or the likes of Amazon, in favor of making deals with US public school districts. Those are state-level bodies that can oversee anything from a few to hundreds of local schools.

The strategy allowed him to stay under the radar of the big toy makers while achieving great success.

He told the Herald that he had already secured a large order from a school district in New York. And after a major logistical pain, 2000 units of the Pakuranga-designed Kaibot have been produced in China, ready for the New Year launch.

Everything KaiBot does in the real world also exists in the virtual world, and with the addition of Kainundrum, its exploits can be viewed in an interactive 3D environment as an added reward for the trainee coder.

Those who want to go further can build their own game using lasers, gates, mirrors, and lesson plans for teachers.

This allows the educator to choose the amount of technology implemented, depending on the age and stage of the participant, using a mix of the physical and digital worlds.

“KaiBot is designed for a five-year-old child, who has no coding experience – or a teacher who has never coded before,” Jackson said.

The price is also more accessible. While the Kai’s Clan Start Pack retails for around $1700, the KaiBot will be priced at around $149.

Sea change

Seachange has tested a prototype hydrofoil technology that it hopes will one day power electric ferries that carry vehicles over the Cook Straight.

By 2023, it has a more modest goal of getting a 10-seater hydrofoiling electric vessel on the water.

The startup is working with Fullers on the “F8”, which will have a top speed of 30 knots and a range of 55 nautical miles on a single charge – which founder and CEO Max Olson pitched as enough for a zero -emission jaunt to any of the inner Gulf islands.

The Fullers are moving forward by purchasing the first F8. The ferry company’s CEO Mike Horne said this represents the first time that hydrofoiling EV technology has been commercialised, anywhere in the world.

Horne won’t put a price tag. But he said the F8 will not operate on commuter runs but will be used as a tourist vessel.

The F8 will be the first of its kind to offer a quiet and calm experience thanks to the combination of its electric engine and foils, Horne said.

Olson said the Seachange’s hydrofoiling system and carbon fiber hulls are derived from technology developed for the America’s Cup.

“We are standing on the shoulders of giants,” he said.

“What’s different about that is we design for safety and efficiency rather than top speed. We care more about passenger comfort.”

Horne sees gliding the F8 in the Gulf as a luxurious experience. A party can hire one for a day trip to Waiheke for $95 per head, while an evening “thrill ride” around the harbor can cost $145 per person.

On the shareholder side, investors include Icehouse Ventures (the largest outside backer, with a 25 percent stake), Blackbird Ventures (12 percent), Sir Stephen Tindall’s K1W1 (6 percent) and Ports of Auckland (2 percent) .

Seachange tested its technology at Marsden Point but now has its own boat building facility at East Tamaki near McMullen & Wing.

McMullen & Wing’s sister company EV Maritime is involved in an effort to put five pure-electric and two hybrid EV/diesel ferries on Auckland waters by 2024, owned by AT and operated by Fullers.

Olson says that like an EV road vehicle, the F8 will have a higher upfront cost than a conventional boat, but lower operating costs.

The “8″ in F8 is 8 meters long (26 feet). Seachange also has 10, 14 and 18 meter vessels on its roadmap.

Fullers customers grappling with cancellations and delays involving the current fleet of aging diesel vessels may roll their eyes and think “we’ll believe it when we see it.”

The company, which under a recent reshuffle now operates vessels owned by AT, has been hit by a labor crunch, and until recently was mired in talks with AT and the Government over future investment on the ferry, which saw several deadlines for ordering new boats come and go.

But Horne said the F8 should be in the water by September.

And he sees the potential for Seachange’s technology to eventually power commuter ferries to Waiheke and, down the track, larger hydrogen-powered vessels around the Gulf, and between the North and South Islands.

Avasa

A new surgical device under development in New Zealand could simplify a complex procedure and reduce the time patients need under anesthesia – improving the results of major surgery.

Avasa, led by New Zealand GP and bioengineer Dr Nandoun Abeysekera, has created arterial coupler technology designed to reconnect major arteries, eliminating the need for surgeons to perform time-consuming and dangerous suturing of arteries.

Abeysekera told the Herald that during reconstructive or organ transplant procedures today, it can take even an experienced surgeon up to 45 minutes to sew two arteries together. His firm’s coupler device can reduce that to as little as five minutes – meaning a narrower window of time when the patient is at risk.

“Every minute we save a patient from under anesthesia is a win. Although modern anesthesia is a safe process, it is not without risks, especially for older or medically fragile patients, Abeysekera said.

“If any part of the process of reconnecting an artery goes wrong, the tissue connected to it will die. This is rare, but the main cause of tissue death after surgery, unfortunately, is technical error.

The thinking behind the coupler is that it works by loading the arteries into the device, automatically moving the arteries into a position ready for healing, then establishing a solid vascular connection to restore blood flow.

Avasa won $750,000 in support from Callaghan Innovation locally.

Avasa has not enjoyed any of the no-strings-attached funding perks in the past, and the grant will be repaid. It also got an injection of seed funding from California-based Bridgewest Group, which acquired a one-third stake in Abeysekera’s startup.

The founder sees Bridgewest – a private investment firm whose punts span everything from real estate to wireless internet technology to medtech – as a valuable conduit to the US primary market.

After completing successful testing of its coupler in a pig (pigs have a similar-sized vascular system to humans), Avasa will now advance approval from the US Federal Drug Administration. If the influential regulator approves Avasa’s product, other agencies around the world are likely to follow suit.

In partnership with Callaghan, Bridgewest Group has created an incubator in New Zealand called Bridgewest Ventures.

Abeysekera was introduced to the US company by Professor Greg O’Grady of Auckland University’s Department of Surgery. O’Grady is also the co-founder and CEO of Alimitetry – a startup that recently raised $16m in Series A funding to help bring its abdominal sensor to market.

Abeysekera are angling for similar Serie A success but expect to be in mid-2024.