Star Kiwi tech companies Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, Orion Health, Serko and Xero are the four finalists in the running for this year’s Hi-Tech Awards Hi-Tech Company of the Year.
Xero is also in the running for the Hi-Tech Exporter of the Year over $5 million award and is one of several companies to gain a finalist placing in more than one category.
Others were mobile marketing specialist VMob, a finalist for Innovative Hi-Tech Software Product Innovative Hi-Tech Mobile Product and Hi-Tech Service Product, and cloud point of sale company Vend, up for Emerging Company of the Year, Hi-Tech Service Product and Hi-Tech Exporter of the Year under $5 million.
IkeGPS is a finalist in the Innovative Hi-Tech Hardware Product as well as the Innovative Hi-Tech Mobile Product group, while movie analytics company Movio is up for the Emerging Company prize and Exporter of the Year Under $5 million.
“This year’s finalists range from companies in their infancy through to some of our biggest, most high profile hi-tech companies,” says Hi-Tech Trust chair Wayne Norrie. “New Zealand hi-tech companies have a unique flavour that extends well beyond the realms of traditional ICT.”
This year’s judges are made up of a local panel of 40 technologists and entrepreneurs and international counterparts including Wildfire co-founder Victoria Ransom, Broadli co-founder Claudia Batten and Google director of engineering Craig Nevill-Manning.
The gala awards dinner to announce the winners will be held in Christchurch on 16 May.
This year’s full finalist list is:
Hi-Tech Company of the Year
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare
Orion Health (Read more: Orion’s hunt)
Serko
Xero (Read more: The numbers are up)
Hi-Tech Emerging Company of the Year
Aura Infosec
Dairy Automation
MarkerMetro (Read more: Windows and nothing else)
Movio
Vend (Read more: Vend adds $25m to capital base)
Hi-Tech Startup Company of the Year
RedSeed Smart Water Technology
StretchSense
Timely (Read more: All in a Timely manner)
Hi-Tech Pre-Commercialisation Company of the Year
Clever Medkits
Geozone
Hunter Safety Labs
Mars Bioimaging
Mobotech
Vigil Monitoring
Innovative Hi-Tech Software Product
Carnival Mobile (Read more: Being Kiwi, selling globally)
Intranel
Mindscape
Orion Health
VMob (Read more: VMob charts course for the UK)
Wynyard Group
Hi-Tech Service Product
Carnival Mobile
MindScape
Snapper Services
Vend
VMob
Innovative Hi-Tech Hardware Product
Dairy Automation
Delta Strike International
ikeGPS (Read more: ikeGPS spoiled for choice)
Mars Bioimaging
Smart Water Technology
Innovative Hi-Tech Mobile Product
Carnival Mobile
ikeGPS
MEA Mobile (Read more: MEA’s rise to the top)
MindScape
Serato (Read more: Scratch’n’tunes)
VMob
Hi-Tech Young Achiever
Scott Barrington (Modlar)
Reuben Bijl (Smudge Apps)
Hannah Gray (Xero)
Guy Horrocks (Carnival Mobile)
Ben O’Brien (StretchSense)
Best Contribution to the NZ Hi-Tech Sector by an internationally-headquartered company
Cisco
Fujitsu
Microsoft
Hi-Tech Exporter of the Year over $5 million
Orion Health
Vista Entertainment (Read more: Exporting success with Vista)
Xero
Hi-Tech Exporter of the Year under $5 million
Animation Research
Movio
?Snapcomms
Vend
