New Zealand tech start-up Shutterspeed has been selected for investment by leading global pre-seed venture capital firm, Techstars.
Out of the 4,400 companies that have worked with Techstars, it is only the third New Zealand company to be backed by the US global startup network and its US$116B portfolio market cap.
Co-founded by Kiwis Freddie Mckenzie and Henry Collinson, Shutterspeed is developing a cutting-edge AI-powered business assistant for content creators and creative professionals.
This investment highlights the growing recognition of New Zealand as a hub of technology innovation.
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“Henry and I have deep, specialist industry knowledge in production, and an equally large understanding of the struggles that owners in the space have,” says McKenzie.
“Production companies need to a better way to understand how time is spent, who is spending it on what, what resources are in use, and what client needs to be billed for it all, so we decided to build Shutterspeed.”
Shutterspeed’s selection for this year’s highly competitive cohort marks a significant win for New Zealand technology on the global stage.
The first tool of its kind
Mckenzie and Collinson designed Shutterspeed with a desire to help content creators and creative professionals remove the burden of administrative tasks and focus on what they do best: creating.
Shutterspeed is the first performance metrics tool that automatically tracks time across different stages of the production process without any manual input from users. It was developed to accommodate the unique and volatile workflows of modern digital creators.
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Powered by Contextual Conversational AI, Shutterspeed allows creative professionals to see real-time data on their project timelines, profit margins and productivity, empowering efficient project management.
Specifically developed for creative professionals, Shutterspeed integrates with popular industry-standard tools like Adobe After Effects, Premiere Pro and Audition. More integrations will be available soon for Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, Lightroom and more.
Empowering creatives with data
Shutterspeed demonstrates the power of collaboration and innovation within New Zealand’s growing technology sector.
Mckenzie and Collison, who were originally neighbours, bonded over their shared passion for technology and innovation, which eventually led to the development of Shutterspeed.
Born out of an existing Auckland-based production company called VIVID Creative, Shutterspeed was officially launched in early 2023 under the fitting company name Nextdoor Technologies.
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“Creativity thrives on instinct, but when powered by data, it charts a clear pathway to success. We’ve all under quoted and underestimated a project before, and eating into your own profit margin is never nice. With Shutterspeed being fully automatic, you can simply set and forget the tracker and focus on your creative endeavours,” says Collison.
“We designed Shutterspeed to streamline workflows and improve pricing strategy for creative professionals and content creators. It’s a great honour to be selected by Techstars, and it’s an exciting moment for Kiwi tech startups to be recognised on the global stage. Our country is fast becoming a hub of innovation, and Shutterspeed is proud to be part of that movement.”
Shutterspeed is now in its pre-alpha stage.
