Cecilia and James Robinson have announced they are leaving their positions as co-chief executives of My Food Bag to focus on governance roles. The move comes as the company prepares to go public, with a goal of listing on the NZX in 2019.

The brainchild of Cecilia Robinson, My Food Bag was founded by the couple with Masterchef winner Nadia Lim, husband Carlos Bagrie and Theresa Gattung in 2012. Delivering its first meal in 2013, the company is now one of New Zealand’s best-known food delivery services.

Cecilia Robinson.

RIP Global has been selected by the Department of Internal Affairs to be part of the Government’s “Marketplace for Cloud Services” beta test programme.

As part of the deal, RIP Global and the other suppliers will help to validate business processes and Marketplace functions, and advise the Department on the user experience prior to the full launch of the Marketplace. RIP Global representatives say they are delighted to be part of “this leap forward in the digital transformation within Government.”

Based in Wellington, RIP Global, founded by Melissa Gollan, is also the only New Zealand company ever to be invited venture capital firm Springboard’s women-led accelerator.

A Kiwi company taking the stress out of moving is about to make a move of its own by launching its new platform, dubbed the “Trivago for moving,” across the ditch, by launching in Australia this week.

MovingPros is a moving company comparison website that takes the stress out of finding a trusted mover. Customers can receive quotes from various moving companies, compare prices and reviews, and book online.

Launched in 2016by founder-brothers Cam and Nate Whitaker, the business has also been chosen from 106 applicants and accepted into K?kiri – a first of its kind business accelerator dedicated to speeding up the development of ten early-stage M?ori businesses.

The four-month programme is partnered with Te W?nanga o Aotearoa and Callaghan Innovation with support from leading brands including Spark, Air New Zealand, and Westpac.

Nate Whitaker said being chosen helped the brothers with their launch into Australia. “When we began researching the biggest cities globally to potentially expand into we were surprised to find that Sydney came out on top in terms of the number of people searching for removal companies every month — even beating out some of the most populated cities like New York and London.

“The search data from Google shows the demand for moving companies in Sydney is four times that of Auckland — so we have a huge potential to help hundreds of thousands of Australians take the stress out of moving house.

“People say moving house is one of the most stressful things you can do, but it doesn’t have to be. Our platform lets people get all their quotes in one place, as well as book a mover based on customer reviews — moving made simple, really.”

The brothers started MovingPros after their own less-than-satisfactory experiences moving house.

“After both having pretty shocking moving experiences, we wanted to solve the problems we had,” said Nate Whitaker. “Getting multiple quotes was time-consuming and cumbersome, wading through countless websites was overwhelming, and then having to submit the same information over and over again was frustrating and a huge time waster. Then, there was no objective way to verify if a company is trustworthy or not.”

The brothers manage the business remotely -, Nate from Auckland and Cam from Tauranga – and say their move into Sydney is the first step of their global expansion strategy.

They have a network of over 150 movers across New Zealand and have helped more than 20,000 moving customers since their launch in September 2016. They aspire to create a billion-dollar business solving transport and shipping inefficiencies in the global residential moving industry.

Cam and Nate Whitaker.

New Zealand biomedical company Aroa Biosurgery has bought back the global marketing and distribution rights to its Endoform wound care solutions from US healthcare company Hollister Incorporated.

Endoform is a proprietary extracellular matrix (ECM) biomaterial, which contains a collagen scaffold and important secondary molecules to support healing.

Aroa sold the wound care rights to Hollister in a series of transactions in 2011 and 2014.  Endoform Dermal Template was launched in the United States in 2013 for the treatment of acute and chronic wounds after obtaining US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) clearance.

Since then, Hollister has established Endoform as a leading product for treating diabetic and venous ulcers and it has been used in more than 2.5 million treatments.

Dr Brian Ward, chief executive of Aroa Biosurgery, said the terms of the acquisition from Hollister are confidential and the immediate capital requirements will be predominantly raised from existing investors. “Regaining the rights means we are now able to proceed with our growth strategy, which includes building a direct sales presence in the United States and expanding distribution into major global markets,” he said. “We see the growth in our wound care business complementing the continuing growth from our partnership with TELA Bio.”

Aroa’s first commercial surgical product, a reinforced bioscaffold developed in collaboration with Tela Bio, was cleared by the FDA in December 2014 for use in ventral hernia repair and abdominal wall reconstruction.

TerraCycle has announced record expansion and revenue growth. In a statement on April 10, company representatives said in the past 15 months the company was qualified by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to issue shares in its $25 million Regulation A offering, allowing any category of investor to invest in TerraCycle’s U.S. operating company. It had also hired 70 new employees and acquired Air Cycle, a universal waste company based in Chicago.

“TerraCycle owes its tremendous success to the hard work, ingenuity and enthusiasm of our dedicated staff,” said Tom Szaky, president and CEO of TerraCycle. “Our record-breaking growth will pave the way for new initiatives in 2018 and 2019; initiatives that include additional solutions to the immense problem of marine plastic and something we believe will change the way consumers view their everyday household products.”

Over the course of TerraCycle’s 15-year history, it has engaged over 100 million people nationally across 21 countries to collect and recycle over one million pounds of waste, that was otherwise non-recyclable, per month and in the process raise over $21 million for charities around the world.

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