Labour pledges to level up gaming sector
Plus: Sharesies takes top spot at the 2025 Best Places to Work Awards
Happy Thursday!
Kia ora Caffeinators, hope you’re well. Welcome to my semifinal newsletter before I take an undeserved break over in Europe for a few weeks. At least it is bloody stuffed with some of my favourite style of content - from video games and AI and dense market reports.
Here’s what’s brewing in your Daily Shot:
Labour pledges to level up game sector rebate
Report: Catalist Angel Market Update
Event: Pathways: a virtual interview with Ellie Brade, Co-Founder of Cleanery
Best Places to Work Awards unveil winners:
OpenAI launches Atlas in fresh shot at Google
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
Labour pledges to level up game sector rebate: Labour have pledged to expand the game sector tax rebate to 25% if re-elected and open it up to more studios - which I love!
I also love the accompanying photos of them the Pik Pok offices in Wellington, which resulted in gems like this one giving huge ‘11 year old me showing my clueless but supportive parents Age of Empires’ energy. And like my parents then, these guys don’t necessarily understand what’s happening on those screens but are willing to financially support it.
Labour brought in the tax rebate during the previous government and National kept it going, despite some grumblings from David Seymour. Now Labour is pledging to give it a bump, which makes sense as one of the reasons it was introduced in the first place was to combat much higher rebates - up to 45% by state - available across the Tasman.
As for whether or not its bang for buck, according to the 2025 NZ Game Development Association Industry Survey, the sector’s revenue has nearly doubled since the introduction of the GDSR, reaching $759 million, up from $407 million in 2023. The industry also now supports more than 1,472 full-time employees, including 375 new high-paying jobs created in the past year.
Report: Catalist Angel Market Update - There is nothing I like better than people smarter than me with access to more data combining those two factors and writing it all down in an easily readable report. Really makes my job a lot easier. Our friends over at Catalist have done exactly that with their Q3 update to the New Zealand Angel Market Report in collaboration with the Angel Association of New Zealand.
Some toplines below but check out the full report here.
Just over $4.15M was invested in total in Q3 (up 170% on Q2, up 19.6% year-on-year) by 160 Angel Investors. General activity has increased with 44 deals completed in Q3, up 16.6% from the trailing twelve-month average.
Continuing trend away from priced rounds, with 42.3% of investment coming by way of convertibles (such as convertible notes or SAFE agreements). For reference, throughout 2024, only 7.8% of investment was via convertibles.
The split between new deals and follow-on investment was relatively consistent with medium term averages, with 40.4% of investment in new deals and 59.6% of investment in in follow-on rounds.
Over the last twelve months, 25.9% of angel investment went to businesses with a female in the founding team. In Q3, 19.1% of investment went to businesses with a female in the founding team (down 6.8% from trailing-twelve-month average).
In Q3, 19.1% of investment went to businesses with a female in the founding team (down 6.8% from trailing-twelve-month average). There are also several large rounds currently in front of angels, for businesses with female founders, expected to close in Q4.
In Q3, almost half of funding came from investors who live in Auckland, with approximately 15% of funding coming from investors based in Otago.
One of the businesses who raised capital from three of the Angel Groups successfully in Q3, was Kitea Health - who we have interviewed previously here at Caffeine and absolutely love to hear they’re killing it.
Event: Pathways: a virtual interview with Ellie Brade, Co-Founder of Cleanery - As I mentioned last week, we want to ensure our events are as accessible as possible. So we’re making this one a webinar available to all. Join us for a live conversation, where we dive into the moments, missteps, and lessons that have shaped Ellie’s journey in being a founder. This session will explore what our guest wishes she had known earlier, the pivotal experiences that shifted her perspective, and the insights she carries forward today. It’s an honest, practical discussion designed to spark reflection and help others navigate their own path. And as well as a free ticket, there’ll be a free Cleanery starter kit for everyone that attends
Date and time
Thu, 30 Oct 2025 12:00 PM - 12:45 PM NZDT
Location
Online, Register here
Best Places to Work Awards unveil winners: Sharesies has been named Overall Winner at the 2025 Best Places to Work Awards, held at Cordis Auckland last night before an audience of around 400 leaders from organisations of all sizes across New Zealand.
Best Places to Work celebrates and supports organisations that shape workplaces where people and performance thrive together. Through a year-long programme that includes employee engagement surveys, masterclasses, business services, certification, and annual awards, BPTW aims to lift the standard of workplace experience nationwide.
Congratulations to all the winners! Check out the list below or follow the link for more info.
2025 Best Places to Work Award Winners
Overall Winner – Sharesies’s
Large Workplace (200 + employees) – House of Travel
Medium-Large Workplace (150 – 199 employees) – Sharesies
Medium Workplace (100 – 149 employees) – Petdirect
Small-Medium Workplace (50 – 99 employees) – RUSH
Small Workplace (21 – 49 employees) – Tax Traders & Taxi
Micro Workplace (5 – 20 employees) – Visir AI
To learn more about the programme, including the 2026 employee engagement survey and new BPTW™ Certified programme, visitwww.bestplacestowork.nz.
Quick out to our friends over at AF drinks who you may see popping up at our future events.
Free AF are a range of non-alc cocktails that taste and feel like the real thing. How? They include a signature ingredient called Afterglow™ that gives the drinks the flavour complexity of a cocktail, and that tingly feeling and the warmth you get from drinking alcohol... without the alcohol. Number one non-alc RTD in NZ and one of the fastest growing in the USA, Free AF is proof that you don’t need booze to party. Their mission is simple: to reduce the alcohol in people’s lives by making alternatives that taste and feel just as good, or better. Designed to give people the freedom and choice to stay out, have a drink and socialise – without the stigma or the hangover.
ChatGPT launches Atlas in fresh shot at Google: Thought you could make it a week without me talking about OpenAI didn’t you, well I hate to burst your bubble but our boy Altman simply won’t stop doing news worthy things.
This week he unveiled Atlas, a long rumoured web browser which centers ChatGPT as the front page of the internet instead of Google’s search bar. Combined with Sora taking direct aim at TikTok, whatever physical device he is cooking up with Jonny Ive and even now allowing erotica on the platform it really feels like OpenAI is taking a swing at every single pillar of the internet - from search to social media to porn. Can’t accuse rhem of lacking ambition.
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