Crimson Education unveils new spin-out, Concord Visa
Plus: BNZ puts the call out for your business questions and time to nab your early bird tickets to great event.
Happy Thursday!
Kia ora Caffeinators,
It’s Thursday and there’s stacks of very cool news to parse so no time for me to waffle on at the top here.
Here’s what’s brewing in your Daily Shot:
BNZ’s Head of Emerging Tech Business answers your questions
Crimson Education graduates into the workforce with new spin-out, Concord Visa
Event: The Aotearoa AI Summit 2025, Early Birds available
Huckleberry Launches the World’s First Voice-Based 360 Feedback Platform
Future of Venture Capital 2024 Report
As always, thank you to everyone who has upgraded to a paid subscription or simply recommended Caffeine to friends and whānau. We couldn’t do any of this without you.
Finn and the CAFFEINE team
Meet Jacob, BNZ’s guru in FinTech Business. Ask him anything.
Startups can be hard. Banking shouldn’t be. Whether you’re bootstrapping or wanting to
attract VC investment, having a strong relationship with your bank can be a key factor in your start up’s success.
BNZ’s Technology Industries team is running an ‘Ask Me Anything’ Q&A series for Caffeine
Daily readers – an easy way for founders to get any finance-related questions answered.
The week, get your fix with Jacob Tyler, BNZ’s Head of FinTech Business. Proud ambassador, hailing from Hamilton, and now living in the big smoke, Jacob supports businesses using technology for banking and financial services. The future of fintech is enhancing the way we lend, save, and spend. Think cutting-edge solutions that push the boundaries.
He’s ready for your questions – give him a challenge and ask him anything. Email your questions to Jacob_Tyler@bnz.co.nz by 19th August, and Jacob will tackle them in our newsletter next week.
Crimson Education graduates into the workforce with new spin-out, Concord Visa: Extremely exciting news from one of our most celebrated unicorns, Crimson Education, as it unveils a new spinout. Crimson Education’s Concord Visa has emerged from stealth to support the best startups, founders, and talent enter global markets
After guiding more than 3,000 student visa applications through Crimson Education, Concord Visa has been created to support another under-served, high performing group; the ambitious people and high growth startups trying to access new markets.
“We started Concord because we saw the same pattern again and again. Our Crimson alumni were doing incredible things; founding companies, joining high-growth and impact teams, conducting high-impact research, performing, competing, creating, but constantly trying to navigate visa hurdles. The process was confusing, slow, and often disconnected from the actual value they were bringing,” said Beaton.
As if taking on the higher education industry worldwide wasn’t impressive enough, now Jamie and his co-founder Kevin Park have taken aim at the sluggish immigration system which has never been set up or responsive for founders. They’ve already helped friends of Caffeine like Tracksuit on their path to global success and I can’t wait to see what this service unlocks.
Check back tomorrow for my conversation with Jamie Beaton about Crimson, Concord and what learning looks like in the age of A.I.
Event: The Aotearoa AI Summit 2025, Early Birds available - This is New Zealand’s essential AI event and I am not just saying that because I am a tragic A.I nerd. It unites industry leaders, researchers, policymakers, and innovators to explore cutting-edge advancements and real-world applications of AI. This one-day summit features keynotes, panels, and workshops on AI ethics, innovation, business, and emerging tech. Discover how AI is transforming sectors like healthcare, finance, agriculture, and government.
With a strong focus on collaboration and knowledge-sharing, the summit offers exceptional networking opportunities for AI professionals, startups, investors, and decision-makers.
Get your early bird tickets here.
Huckleberry Launches the World’s First Voice-Based 360 Feedback Platform: Concord isn’t the only reveal in the newsletter this morning, as the founder of AskNicely, Aaron Ward, has unveiled an AI-powered feedback platform designed to help people do their best work. It’s an interesting use case of A.I which tackles a problem I had never considered - ‘how do you give people useful feedback at work without adding more work to HR and managers? Huckleberry leverages teammates talking, rather than typing.
Feedback is given through a guided, voice-based conversation with an AI coach in 4-5 minutes rather than 20-30 minutes. Huckleberry then analyzes feedback and identifies strengths and improvement opportunities - without needing manager or HR review.
It’s a clever application for A.I and as these tools become much better at nuanced conversations and conveying complex concepts in a more recognisably ‘human’ way, I expect the Venn diagram of ‘soft skills’ and ‘A.I disruption’ to start overlapping more significantly.
Future of Venture Capital 2024 Annual Report: Fascinating detail on the changing landscape of gender equity in the VC landscape. First reported by the WSJ but now available to all, the Future of Venture Capital Report published by the non profit All Raise highlights the major strides made by women in the sector while being clear eyed about how much further we still need to go. Download the full report here.
Some highlights:
Women now hold nearly 20% of decision-making roles at $1B+ VC firms — a sign of meaningful gains at scale. At the Managing Partner level, especially in megafunds, gender parity is still far off.
More than 100 women-led funds launched this past decade with almost 180 women-led firms raising $5.3 billion in 2023.
An estimated $100 trillion will move into the hands of women by 2048
That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Want to get in touch with a news tip, bit of feedback or just to chat? Email hello@caffeinedaily.co