Halter becomes New Zealand's latest unicorn
Plus: Electrify Aotearoa is ON and last chance to get your Global Growth Grant application in!
Happy Tuesday!
Hope everyone’s week is kicking off well and the winter blues aren’t biting too hard. I know one startup which is running hot despite the weather, Halter, which has just become the latest NZ bred unicorn. Congrats to the team!
Here’s what’s brewing in your Daily Shot:
Halter becomes newest NZ unicorn:
Event: Electrify Aotearoa is HERE
The widening global AI divide
OpenAI removes all promo materials mentioning Jony Ive deal
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
Final Call: $5,000 Growth Grant Applications
Our partnership with Airwallex has started with a bang – we love helping our founders secure extra funding – however, you better be quick. Applications for Airwallex’s Global Growth Grant close next Monday, 30 June!
If you haven’t submitted your entry for this incredible initiative, then you better move. This is your last call to apply for one of two $5,000 Global Growth Grants! It could be the difference between rubbing shoulders with the best and brightest and pitching your startup idea across the ditch, or across globe.
The world is your oyster, and Airwallex is helping shuck it wide open with the 2025 Global Growth Grant.
Entering is simple - just think about what global conference you want to attend and how it would impact your business. Then, head over to Airwallex and submit your entry. It’s doesn’t need to be far – you could even head to SXSW in Sydney later this year, or use the funds to cover the cost of a conference you’ve already attended!
Halter becomes newest NZ unicorn: It may not come as a total surprise to those watching closely but it is certainly cause for celebration - Halter is New Zealand’s latest unicorn. After a $165m series D raise led by Bond, the agritech startup is now valued over $1b US (1.65m NZ).
They’re an incredible success story and Caffeine spoke with founder Craig Piggott after it took out the top spot in Deloitte’s fast 50 with a staggering 1500% growth. That momentum is clearly being maintained and I can’t wait to see what the company does next. Check out Caffeine’s interview with Craig here.
Event: Electrify Aotearoa is HERE: It’s one of the highlights of the startup calendar and this year it’s back and bigger than ever. From today, investors and operators will pack Wellington’s historic St James Theatre for the fourth edition of Electrify Aotearoa, the summit dedicated to super-charging New Zealand’s most ambitious women and non-binary founders.
As Caffeine wrote in our interview with Electrify Chair Marian Johnson, Female founders could be the country’s biggest under-leveraged asset. Afterall, cutting half the population out of the founder pool is like running a marathon with one leg.
Need-to-know:
When: 24 – 25 June 2025 (two half-days)
Where: St James Theatre, Wellington
Tickets & programme: electrifyaotearoa.co.nz
The widening global AI divide: While we celebrate the innovative success of our home grown startups like Halter and events like Electrify, it’s always worth keeping an eye on the global trends and I would very much recommend checking out this piece from the NYT analysing research from Oxford University on the growing ‘A.I Divide’ globally.
The above map shows that only 32 countries, dominated by wealthy states in the global north, have access to dedicated A.I data centres. This is splitting the world into the haves and have nots when it comes to the world’s most important emerging technology. America and China dominate, with their businesses running 90% of data centres according to the research, deeply influencing geopolitics. Check out the NYT report here.
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OpenAI removes all promo materials mentioning Jony Ive deal: OpenAI has removed all it’s promotional material mentioning the Jonny Ive deal and no, it’s not because they realized the above photo made it look like they were getting engaged or there’s any drama busting up the deal. It’s actually for much more boring legal reasons as a court ordered it down while a trademark complaint from iyO about the use of the name ‘io.’ Check out OpenAI’s short and sweet statement addressing the issue 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