Startup founder Rick Kiessig wins Entrepreneur of the Year in GEN awards

Rick Kiessig, founder of Nelson-based biotech Kimer Med, won Entrepreneur of the Year at the second annual Global Entrepreneurship Network Aotearoa NZ’s (GEN NZ) awards.

The event, held at GridAKL Futures Lab in Auckland, recognises the achievements of entrepreneurs and the wider entrepreneur support ecosystem in New Zealand.

The idea for the awards came after GEN NZ won "GEN Country of the Year" in 2021, an award given to the highest performing Global Entrepreneurship Network country out of 180 globally.

GEN NZ Chair Dave Moskovitz says the recognition opened a number of doors internationally for New Zealand’s entrepreneur ecosystem – which he describes as exploding in diversity.

“Most of our ventures have a social bent to them, trying to improve the society and the world that we live in with new products and services. In these trying times, our entrepreneurs are heroes that can give us hope that our children and grandchildren will live in a fairer, healthier, exciting, human-centric and sustainable world,” he says.

Moskowitz says GEN NZ is a grassroots organisation which aims to recognise people who “may not be quite so high profile but are doing amazing things.”

One of those is Kiessig, who was unable to attend last night’s event. The American moved to New Zealand with his family in 2006 from Silicon Valley.

He has a background in biology, organic chemistry, biochemistry, software, and rocket science and owned and operated a multi-person consultancy in Silicon Valley for more than 20 years that delivered projects for the likes of NASA and Lockheed Martin.

He’s written software that has flown to Mars three times and on several other near and deep space missions and lists his hobbies as ham radio and asteroid tracking. 

He and fellow American Phil Oliver co-founded Kimer Med, a Nelson-based biotech start-up, working to optimise new, broad-spectrum antiviral drugs with its compound VTose.

2023 has been a big year for the startup. In June, it announced that it had achieved two 100% positive results in tests against the two prolific viruses Dengue and Zika. That brings the total number of viruses VTose is effective against to seven.

Moskovitz says Kimer Med is taking on one of the biggest challenges facing humanity, given there are hundreds of viral diseases for which there is no specific treatment. There are only approved antivirals for 10 diseases and that is an annual $97 billion global market.

He says by developing antivirals for only 10 more of these unaddressed diseases, Kimer Med would grow this market by another $10 billion.

In August, the company launched its Series A capital round to raise funds for clinical trials, with the aim of eventually bringing the antiviral drugs to market within the next five to 10 years.

Andy Clover, Kimer Med’s communications & funding lead, says that GEN NZ’s award will hopefully boost the company’s profile and that Kiessig’s “the smartest guy [he’s] ever met.”

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‍Other award winners 

‍Kaye-Maree Dunn won ‘Māori Entrepreneur of the Year’ for her role with social impact agency MEA. The award acknowledges initiatives led by Māori and for Māori.

GEN NZ described her work in this sector as “prolific, impactful, progressive and commendable.”

This year, Dunn created and delivered significant opportunities for Māori on both the local and global stage, including a partnership with the US Embassy and Stay Connected, the AWE Wāhine enterprise programme for 30 wāhine from Te Tai Tokerau (Northland). She also led a Māori trade delegation which took 19 indigenous entrepreneurs for a cultural and trade exchange with the Pequot Nation in Connecticut USA.

In 2018, Dunn also founded Āhau, a blockchain-based Whānau Data Platform that helps whānau-based communities (whānau, hapū, Iwi) capture, preserve, and share important information and histories into secure whānau-managed databases and servers.

“One of the key things for us Māori is that these successes are not ours alone. Our success belongs to our tūpuna, our ancestors, our families. All of us are setting a pathway for our young people to follow,” she says.

This year, there was also a new inaugural ‘Suse Reynolds Award’ for “being an amazing human.”

It was won by the award’s namesake, who is Angel Association New Zealand chair and a member of the government’s Startup Advisors Council.

Moskovitz says that Reynolds “embodies what it means to be a great ‘angel’ in every respect.”

“There’s nothing more warm fuzzy-generating than getting a wink, a nod and a smile from people you care about,” Reynolds says.

Caffeine was also a finalist for the ‘Entrepreneur Support Organisation’ award despite only launching two months ago. Congratulations to the category’s winner, Doso, formerly Startup Taranaki.

We take heart from Moskovitz saying “judging was really tough, and each of the finalists deserved to win.”

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The full list of winners: 

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Academic Initiative of the year

Winner: Velocity

Finalists: B.spkl, Stephen Cummings / Slush'd, Velocity

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GEN NZ Connector of the year

Winner: Pauli Sosa

Finalists: Pete Howard, Pascale Hyboud-Peron, Richard Liew, Jenny Rudd, Pauli Sosa

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Entrepreneur of the year

Winner: Rick Kiessig / Kimer Med

Finalists: Christina Houlihan / Bspkl, Natalie Jones / Seasick Sunscreen, Rick Kiessig / Kimer Med, Mrinali Kumar / Eat Kinda, Olivia Ogilvie / Opo Bio

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Entrepreneur Support Organisation of the year

Winner: Doso

Finalists: Caffeine Daily, CreativeHQ, Doso, Sprout, Startup NZ

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Investor of the year

Winner: MJ Alvarez / WNT Ventures

Finalists: MJ Alvarez / WNT Ventures, Sharon Bryant, Richard Coon, Suse Reynolds, Bridget Unsworth

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Māori Entrepreneur of the year

Winner: Kaye-Maree Dunn

Finalists: Kaye-Maree Dunn, Flying Geese Productions, Joe Harawira, Ratu Mataira, Kushla Okano

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GEN NZ Member Representative of the year

Winner: Pascale Hyboud-Peron

Finalists: Pascale Hyboud-Peron, Catriona Stewart, Dan Thurston Crowe

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Public Sector Initiative of the year

Winner: Jenny Douché / Callaghan

Finalists: CreativeHQ - GovTech, Jenny Douché / Callaghan Innovation, Kiwinet, Catriona Stewart / GridAKL

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Social Entrepreneur of the year

Winner: Sasha Lockley / Money Sweetspot

Finalists: Julia Arnott-Neenee, Sasha Lockley / Money Sweetspot, Laura Nixon / Solid Oral Care, TechDisOut

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Youth Programme of the year

Winner: The Brave Venture

Finalists: The Brave Venture, Flying Geese Productions, Young Enterprise

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