The KiwiSaaS leaders say in their letter they want to meet with Collins “to help inform and collaborate on the Government’s future plans for the SaaS sector, to maintain the incredible momentum the sector has achieved”.
They add, “We know time is against us with the current support for KiwiSaaS ending June 30.”
The Herald understands the letter was sent on April 8.
As of late yesterday, a reply had not been received from Collins, her staff or any Government agency, according to a KiwiSaaS insider.
The insider said he feared KiwiSaaS could become “collateral damage” in the Government’s broad-strokes cost-cutting efforts, “when this is exactly the sort of thing they need to be doing to boost productivity and exports”. The average salary in the sector was $105,000, he said.
Bruce Jarvis, the head of the KiwiSaaS community - and one of its six full-timers - said the industry’s growth was fueled by only around 10 per cent of its members, who were in a high-growth phases. The others were in a scale-up phase and needed a boost.
“That’s where we come in,” Javis said. He and his team run workshops around the country, conferences, online Q&A’s and run a “matching-making” service to help industry players connect with each other.
KiwiSaaS letter signatories
- Gallagher NZ CEO Kahl Betham
- Gallagher Animal Management CEO Lisbeth Jacob
- Xero NZ country manager Bridget Snelling
- Datacom MD of SaaS Solutions Peter Nelson
- Ex-Pushpay chairman and CEO Bruce Gordon
- AskNicely founder Aaron Ward
- Serko cofounder and CEO Darrin Grafton
- CIN7 CEO David Leach
- Parallo CEO and co-founder Symon Turlow
- Parkable cofounder and CEO Toby Litton
- LawVu cofounder and CEO Sam Kidd
Although the sector has faced challenges over the past year, with hefty layoffs at Xero, online retail specialist CIN7 and others, the letter detailed stats on the sector’s overall growth.
“As of 2022, NZ’s SaaS sector generated $2.9 billion of largely export revenue and has seen year-on-year growth of 15 per cent. since 2016. At this continued growth rate, by 2032 the SaaS sector will have quadrupled in size – it will be generating an additional $9b in revenue (or $12b in total), and an additional 50,000 high-paying jobs,” the letter said.
It added: “Because SaaS products can be built, and utilised, anywhere in the world, it is a unique export sector for New Zealand as it requires no physical inputs, just a computer and an internet connection.
“The SaaS sector is an invisible giant. Few would know or believe that such a vibrant part of NZ’s tech sector is performing so well on the world stage - and there is much more to come, with the right support.”
No reply, insider says
Responsibility for technology is split across several ministers, as per recent Governments, including Collins as Minister for Science, Innovation and Technology, and until her demotion yesterday, Melissa Lee handling telecommunications as Media and Communications Minister (Paul Goldsmith now fills the portfolio).
A spokesman for Collins said she could not immediately comment because she was travelling. Collins, who also holds the Defence portfolio, is set to attend Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium after an OECD conference in Paris this week. He could not immediately confirm if she had responded to the KiwiSaaS letter.
Collins is expected to unveil new initiatives with the Budget on May 30. But she warned on the campaign trail that funds would be tight. Of dozens of ideas put forward in a Startup Council report last year, she would commit to only one - more tech visas. However, she did promise to assess the viability of a second: tax changes that would make employee stock ownership plans (or esops, sometimes used by cash-strapped early-stage companies as a way of luring or keeping staff) more favourable.
A second letter
This month Collins has also been sent an open letter by Phoebe Harrop, a partner at Australasian venture capital firm Blackbird Ventures.
The previous Government tipped $300m into the Elevate venture capital fund, which co-invested in start-ups, along with VC firms like Blackbird. The fund is now nearly empty.
In her letter, Harrop called on Collins, Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Lee to provide a further $500m for Elevate.
The Startup Council earlier called for Elevate to be renewed with $500m in new funding. On the campaign trail, Collins said her party would assess the viability of an Elevate top-up with Budget 2024 - but she also flagged that it could be challenging amid tight fiscal constraints.
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.
