A new website by Grow Wellington and DNA casts the city as the place to be for Kiwi tech companies, investors and staff.
High Tech Capital includes articles and video about Wellington success stories like games maker Pik Pok, cloud accounting software provider Xero, Weta Digital, R&D company Jig Lab and mobile visitor experience firm Stqry. It also highlights local events like Webstock and AnimFX.
Wellington has the highest number of firms in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 for Asia Pacific of any New Zealand city, with 16 of the 40 that made the latest list. They include Alphero, GreenButton, ENZEC and OrbitRemit, which made the top 100.
The website aims to build on the strengths the Wellington tech sector has, says Grow Wellington’s general manager of marketing communications, Sarah Peacock. “We’re saying we are the high tech capital and if you’re a tech business you can thrive,” she says.
“It’s a collaborative business community and it’s creative. Even though the companies are competing it’s still a culture of helping each other out.”
However, the biggest challenge the economic development agency has identified is a shortage of talent, she says.
Part of its response was to include two of its staff in the Kiwi tech sector delegation exhibiting at the South By Southwest festival in Texas, to share opportunities for tech workers to find employment in the capital.
Wellington tech companies Wipster, Xero and Carnival Labs are also at the event. Grow Wellington also seed funded the Enspiral Dev Academy Boot Camp.