Critical lack of capital holding back innovation in NZ - report
Plus: Secure your spot at the annual conference for the Tech Marketers of Aotearoa.
Happy Tuesday!
Kia ora Caffeinators,
It’s another great day in startup land. Though in saying that, we are kicking off with a report about the critical barriers holding Kiwi cleantech innovators back and finishing with an alarming story about how the internet might be changing us all in terrible ways. But outside of that, it’s a fabulous day!
Check back tomorrow for the latest column from our resident scribbler Serge Van Dam and later in the week for my conversation with one of the most brilliant founders in our ecosystem - Crimson Education’s Jamie Beaton.
Here’s what’s brewing in your Daily Shot:
Next Wave report highlights the critical barriers holding back innovative businesses
Event: Resonance: The annual conference for the Tech Marketers of Aotearoa
Nvidia unveils new Cosmos world models to push AI into the physical world
Is the internet changing our personalities for the worse?
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
Next Wave report highlights the critical barriers holding back innovative businesses: The great green transition is underway and with investment in cleantech topping $2 trillion in 2024, the potential for Kiwi startups is obvious and enormous. But having a hard look at what is keeping more companies from getting a slice of that growing green pie is crucial and that’s why we love reports like this one, created in collaboration between the Sustainable Business Network and the University of Canterbury.
The Next Wave report captures the experiences of 44 sustainable innovators—selected from the Next 95, a list of finalists in the 2024 Sustainable Business Awards, focused on disruptive innovation. They are predominantly small enterprises, start-ups and grassroots initiatives.
Key findings:
74.5% reported that accessing funding is difficult. That includes over half (53.5%) who reported it is “extremely difficult”.
Other barriers to progress include the need for clearer and more consistent policy direction, greater visibility and awareness of sustainable solutions, and stronger market demand.
Only 11.3% described the current policy environment as “supportive” or “very supportive”, while 73.8% identified customer awareness and demand as a challenge.
Despite the constraints, confidence remains high. Over 90% reported growth in customer interest in the past year, and more than 65% expressed optimism about their future growth.
Still, profitability remains a challenge: 42.9% of businesses are operating at a loss and only 17% are breaking even.
Read the full report here.
Event: Resonance: The annual conference for the Tech Marketers of Aotearoa - As the cost of producing content in both time and money can theoretically approach zero, the role of anyone in the attention economy is changing. In a time when artificial intelligence can generate content, optimise campaigns, and predict behaviour faster than ever, the role of the marketer is shifting, but it’s far from disappearing. Now more than ever, what we create must resonate: with our audiences, with our values, and with the world around us.
At this year’s conference, you’ll explore:
How marketers can create connection and emotional resonance in an AI-shaped world.
What human creativity still does best, and how to amplify it with intelligent tools.
The data, technologies, and signals that help us stay attuned to what really matters.
Timeless marketing truths that still hold power in a tech-driven future.
Check out the full schedule in the link below. Expect to see some familiar faces, including our very own James Hurman and resident scribbler Serge Van Dam.
Nvidia unveils new Cosmos world models to push AI into the physical world - Nvidia might be one of the most, arguably the most, staggeringly successful companies to ever exist but it can’t afford to rest on its laurels. While its managed to be the proverbial shovel seller during three separate gold rushes, with its products powering gaming, crypto and now AI, its already setting the stage to dominate the emerging robotics revolution.
Today it unveiled a new series of ‘world models’ and other infrastructure to support robotics developers as they take A.I applications into the physical realm.
The flagship of these is Cosmos Reason, a 7-billion-parameter “reasoning” vision language model. For non tragic nerds unfamiliar with the jargon, world models are a fascinating emerging field which essentially create increasingly realistic simulations of the actual world in order to simulate actions and allow advanced training for AI systems and robots.
In the same way humans have a mental picture of the world in our heads we use to predict what will happen whenever we take a certain action, world models are attempting to recreate that for machines. It might sound very high level but it really is foundational to the next wave of the A.I revolution. And Nvidia is definitely not alone in seeing the importance of this space, this week Google Deepmind released its own frontier world model, Genie 3.
For the kind of practical applications which will see real returns on the titanic spends on infrastructure we’re seeing, AI has to step into physical roles through robotics and its moves like this that could make it happen.
Also, selfishly, I just really want to be alive for that brief, lovely window after the first robots take to the streets but before they rise up to replace us. That’s the sweet spot.
Check out more from Nvidia’s announcement here.
Is the internet changing our personalities for the worse? - I am reflexively sceptical of arguments that seem to be implying ‘technology is ruining the minds of the children’ but that didn’t stop me being taken aback by this viral graph posted by the excellent John Burn-Murdoch over the Financial Times from his feature ‘ The Troubling Decline in Conscientiousness’.
It draws on a lot of solid research to paint an alarming picture of how radically young peoples personalities have are changing in recent years. You can check out the key takeaways in his X thread here or check out his full story if you have a sub here.
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