Christchurch has jumped 168 places in Startup Blink’s 2022 Global Startup Ecosystem Index to make the world’s top 250 cities. hoto / ChristchurchNZ
Christchurch has jumped 168 places in Startup Blink’s 2022 Global Startup Ecosystem Index to make the world’s top 250 cities. hoto / ChristchurchNZ
Opinion by Ali Adams
OPINION
Christchurch is fortunate to have a thriving, diverse economy. Its agricultural roots mean we have a base of primary exports, which have been booming, and the manufacturing sector that initially sprang up to support that base is now highly skilled and innovative.
We recently carried out an extensive surveyof 4400 residents. And this quote really stood out for me: “Christchurch is a manufacturing hub. We’ve manufactured things the world didn’t know they needed”.
I love that – it’s so true. We have amazing companies in this city, leading the world in niche areas that I had never heard of until I started working in the public sector and had the privilege of hearing their stories.
As a city, we have not been great at shouting our business successes from the rooftops, so I want to make sure you hear this fabulous news at full volume: Christchurch has just jumped an astounding 168 places in Startup Blink’s 2022 Global Startup Ecosystem Index to make the world’s top 250 cities. In the process, we’ve leapfrogged Wellington to have the second-most active start-up sector in the country.
Startup Blink’s Global Startup Ecosystem Index ranks the start-up ecosystems of 1000 cities across 100 countries and the index is used by hundreds of thousands of readers across the globe to aid in decision-making around relocation, investment and research.
This is the biggest jump in rankings the report’s authors have ever seen. As the city’s sustainable economic development agency, a key job is to raise the city’s productivity and one of the ways we do that is ensuring the city has a vibrant innovation ecosystem. This ranking validates that we are making great progress and proves investing in this ecosystem was the right call.
This record-breaking leap in start-up activity is a big deal because our city’s innovation ecosystem is a big part of being ready for the future. This is where our best ideas are nurtured from the spark of inspiration to the path to commercialisation. This is where the challenges of tomorrow are being worked on today, and this is where the high-wage, high-growth jobs of the future will emerge from — maybe even Christchurch’s next unicorn, replicating the achievement of Seequent.
Ali Adams, ChristchurchNZ chief executive. Photo / Supplied
That term “unicorn” is a bit misleading. It makes it sound as if a high-growth, high-wage business is an outlier that had the help of some magic to become a world-beating business. But in fact, it is built on a well-designed pathway of growth, the city’s innovation ecosystem.
Christchurch is a city of epic creativity. We have a strong base of learning and research with four tertiaries in our region. ChristchurchNZ research shows that just a few years ago, we were above most other Australasian centres in terms of translating investment into innovation but that we were below most other centres in translating that innovation into economic outcomes.
So ChristchurchNZ intentionally stepped into the space of helping to fund and connect providers within the city’s start-up and innovation ecosystem.
For early-stage start-ups, the Ministry of Awesome at Te Ōhaka runs incubator programmes. To be involved in this incubator, ideally you’ll already have a minimum viable product, fewer than five FTEs, less than $500,000 in investment, and revenue of less than $100,000. But there is wiggle room.
If your business is past the early start-up stage, you’ll likely be better suited to ThincLab at the University of Canterbury. ThincLab works with start-ups and scale-ups that have evidence of market validation and are operating as a business. You might be ready to export, grow, or land a first or second round of investment.
We also support business incubators through a new agreement with the HTK Group to deliver a 6-month growth incubation programme (the Whakatipu Incubator programme) to accelerate the growth of local Māori knowledge-intensive businesses through providing mentorship and increasing their connections to the NZ start-up ecosystem and sources of funding.
Te Ōhaka also runs short-course, 10-week Business Accelerator and Innovation Accelerator programmes that can help you learn to start, validate and commercialise your business ideas.
So, the point of our start-up and innovation eco-system is to help businesses start, grow and thrive. ChristchurchNZ-funded start-up incubator programmes are specifically structured to give you customised support at each stage of your journey, from customer validation through to capital raises, scaling, and going global. No matter which stage your idea or business is at, we can help.
Through challenges, incubators and accelerators (which are mostly delivered by the city’s tertiaries) we identify talent and promising ideas and help bring them to commercialisation. These types of incubators both draw from and feed into our talent pipelines and nurture the next generation of entrepreneurs.
It is wonderful to be able to share such good news as the holiday season fast approaches.
