Angel connections help ideas grow wings

Carl Jones says the incubator has three companies that have received the full $600,000 available from funding sources. Photo / File

The boss of Bay of Plenty startup funding group Enterprise Angels says it is working closely with WNTVentures.

"We're able to refer opportunities that are at too early a stage for Enterprise Angels to WNTVentures, and we're able in all kinds of ways to be able to give more certainty to that next round of funding at the angel stage," executive director Bill Murphy said.

Enterprise Angels is a shareholder in the incubator through its sidecar fund EA1, and sits on its investment committee. That involvement could include providing expert guidance and appropriately qualified directors for the incubated company.

Mr Murphy said the Scion nanofibre research was at too early a stage for angel investors because the commercial possibilities were still being worked out.

"We're really pleased to see Scion is able to take some of its really cool research into WNT and give us the opportunity to invest in it at a later stage."

WNTVentures chief executive Carl Jones said the incubator to date had three companies that had received the full $600,000 available from a combination of Callaghan Innovation repayable grants and the incubator's 1:3 matching funding.

Bay of Plenty-based Onesixone has developed a software-hardware solution, which bridges the gap between industry standard DJ software and entertainment lighting systems.

IPO, based in Dunedin, is developing a point-of-care bovine mastitis diagnostic test, which will guide antibiotic treatment decisions. The technology only requires minimal laboratory requirements through vet practice or on farm, a simple sampling procedure.

Mr Jones said he was not yet able to provide details of the third company, which was in the software sector, for reasons of business confidentiality. There was also an agri-tech company at the same pre-incubation stage as Scion's nanofibre project.