Nau mai, welcome to your place of innovation
estimated collective value of startup alumni
Founders supported
Participants through programmes and events
Invested in
startup alumni
The future of our economy is being built here.
At Creative HQ, we’re growing an ecosystem where innovation can thrive. Proudly based in Wellington, NZ.
We back bold ideas and the people behind them – founders, intrapreneurs and public sector leaders – who are shaping what’s next.
From start-ups to government, we empower change-makers to succeed, transform organisations, and prepare for the future of work. Together, we’re creating a more prosperous Aotearoa New Zealand.
We are Aotearoa’s leading innovation hub
Adapt
Tailored services for innovators within the public and private sector who are ready to upskill their teams
and future-proof their organisations.
Build
Support for founders and startups ready for what’s next. Whether you’re refining your MVP or entering new markets, this is your launchpad.
Connect
Get involved through events,
mentoring, coaching and more. Tap into our ecosystem and meet the people powering our economy. If you’re curious, you’re invited.
Your startup launchpad
Since 2003, we’ve supported 400+ startup founders
Empowering you to innovate
Across the globe, we’re working with leading organisations to drive impactful change.
Connect with the ecosystem
From our founders
A thriving ecosystem awaits
We’re proud to be the connector for founders, funders, mentors, corporates, government, public research organisations and universities. Our community may be smaller and younger than other global hubs, but our impact speaks volumes. We punch above our weight, and we’re proud of it.
Why walk when you can sprint?
There are a lot of benefits to applying lean startup methodologies such as design sprints in large organisations. In simple terms, design sprints are a fast and efficient tool for problem-solving. Teams engage with key issues, identify opportunities and turn…
GovTech Accelerator success: Provincial Government of Bataan
Who we worked with Provincial Government of Bataan (PGB) What we did together GovTech Accelerator In 2024, with the support of the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Creative HQ kicked off a GovTech Accelerator Programme with the…
The Copilot default: Why limiting Government staff to one AI tool is a missed opportunity
Across much of New Zealand’s public sector, the AI strategy amounts to this: staff get Microsoft Copilot because it comes with the existing M365 licence and everything else is blocked. It’s tidy. IT can manage it. Procurement doesn’t need a…
Innovation in Government: Department of Conservation’s Smart Weed Alert Tool (SWAT)
Who we worked with Department of Conservation (DOC) What we did together GovTech Accelerator At Creative HQ, we believe in pushing the boundaries of public sector innovation, and the 2024 GovTech Accelerator was another example of this pursuit. Over the…
An electric revolution that started in Wellington: FTN Motion
Clean, green New Zealand – it’s in our DNA. Kiwis are passionate about the environment and demand is rising for clean transport solutions. Wellington runs New Zealand’s original regular electric ferry schedule, was part of the world’s first electric flight…
Health NZ’s AI scribe rollout: What the rest of Government can learn
Health NZ has rolled out Heidi, an Australian-built AI clinical scribe, to 27 hospitals through its HealthX programme (the NZ Herald also has good background). The Hawke’s Bay pilot results are worth noting: documentation time per patient dropped from around…
From an idea to the regulator’s room: Two founders, a sandbox pilot and very different journeys
When Shane joined Fintech Lab at the start of last year, he didn’t have a company. He had a co-founder, a concept, and – by his own admission – no idea what FMA (Financial Markets Authority) stood for. Maria had…
Women in the Capital are raising capital
Wellington – November 2021: Wellington is bucking the trend with women currently making up the majority of founders participating in Creative HQ’s innovation and startup programmes at Wellington’s innovation hub. Nationwide women make up 17% of business founders. Further, women-founded or…
Day 1: From public sector to startup founder
Op-ed written by Annie Kim, Founder at Airie. At some point the question stopped being should someone solve this? It became if not me,then who? While working at Immigration New Zealand, I kept seeing the same problem from different angles….
Where are they now? Five Fintech Lab founders, one year on
Building a Fintech is not your regular startup journey. You can’t just build something, put it online and start selling. Before your first customer can hand over a cent, you’re navigating financial regulations, licensing requirements, compliance frameworks, and technical infrastructure…
Leading NZ founders join Creative HQ as brand ambassadors
Wellington, New Zealand — January 2026 Creative HQ has appointed six leading founders and startup operators as brand ambassadors, formalising a deeper relationship with people already closely connected to the organisation and the wider innovation ecosystem. Meet the Brand Ambassadors…
Meet the people guiding startups to greatness
Wellington – 6 June 2024: Creative HQ’s accelerators provide our cohorts with mentors and coaches to assist them through their unique challenges across a 12-week programme. Mentors and coaches play critical roles in startup accelerator teams, but what exactly is…
Why Fintech in Wellington is thriving
Wellington’s economy has always been a beautiful blend of public service, arts, hospitality, and innovative small and medium-sized businesses that don’t let the southerly wind ever blow away their ambition. We’re biased at Creative HQ, but looking across the private…
Myths, joys and lessons learned: entrepreneurship after 50
When we asked AI to create an image of a “stereotypical startup founder,” it gave us exactly what you’d expect – a young, gym-fit Pākehā guy in jeans, trendy sneakers, and a plain t-shirt. He’s glued to his laptop, surrounded…
Manaaki Tairāwhiti
Who we worked with Manaaki Tairāwhiti and Ministry of SocialDevelopment What we did together GovTech Accelerator Aotearoa spends more than 50 billion dollars annually on social services that are designed to help everyone thrive. However, these services inadvertently create barriers….
Grey’s ave
Who we worked with Kāinga Ora What we did together GovTech Accelerator Key skills Applied innovation Read more Grey’s ave The accelerator programme helped Kāinga Ora create a user-centric solution, which in turn secured investment from senior leadership. The programme…
Gen Z calls for innovation to be taught in schools
Wellington – 15 December 2021: A new study from Wellington’s innovation hub, Creative HQ, has found that an overwhelming majority (96%) of Gen Z believe that innovation should be taught in schools, with 77% of respondents viewing themselves as innovative….
How to bring private strategy thinking to the public sector
The GovTech Accelerator is not for the faint of heart. Our cohort is taking a new approach to problem-solving in the public sector. This requires the application of new way of working to big, complex public sector issues to create fit-for-purpose…
Ministry of Education
Who we worked with Ministry of Education What we did together 2-day summit Key skills Co-design Read more The Kōrero Mātauranga The goal? To create transformational change in the education sector, Creative HQ and partner Openfield created Kōrero Mātauranga –…
‘New Creative HQ programme backs bold Climate Tech founders’: The Aurora Climate Lab has kicked off with 15 impact-driven teams.
Wellington – 14 April 2025: Fifteen founders with bold new ideas on how to tackle the climate crisis are currently embarking on Creative HQ’s Aurora Climate Lab to supercharge their start-up journey. “Aurora Climate Lab is our fourth accelerator backing…
Mindset of Design
Who we worked with Speakers around Wellington and New Zealand What we did together 1-week festival Key skills human-centred design Read more All the latest updates on Mindset of Design website Exploring how humans can work better together. Ultimately it…
Project One
Who we worked with DTI, Philippines and G2G What we did together A series of sprints Key Skills Problem discovery, Ideation, Prototyping Read more NZ aids Philippines in ease of doing business – Philippine Star In 2016, the World Bank’s…
GovTech Accelerator 2022: calling all startups and NGOs
For the past 4 years Creative HQ has been running the GovTech Accelerator, helping local and central government to use creativity and innovation to solve problems. Our goal is still the same: to leverage innovation to drive better outcomes for…
State of the industry: How ‘paying it forward’ is building New Zealand’s most valuable export sector
The time is now OPINION 24 May 2024 – If the annual Budget is something of a state-of-the-nation moment for Aotearoa New Zealand, it is timely to present a state-of-the-industry assessment for the tech startup sector. As I stood on…
10 NZ Female entrepreneurs to keep on your radar
Out of approximately 582 million in the world, there are about 252 million women-owned businesses around the world. Though the percentage of women entrepreneurs has increased by 114% in the last twenty years, men still dominate the startup field. We’re…
Fledgling Kiwi startups dive into the world of tech as new Incubator programme kicks off at Creative HQ
Wellington – 18 November 2021: Ten startups from across the country are bringing their digital product ideas to life as they kick off the 2021 Incubator programme today at Creative HQ, Wellington’s innovation hub. This year’s Incubator cohort is loaded with…
Jobs for Nature
Who we worked with Jobs for Nature What we did together GovTech Accelerator The problem Connecting with nature is essential for our mental, emotional, and physical well-being. It allows us to establish social connections, develop a profound sense of responsibility…
AI recycling solutions and Kiwi carbon capture technology: Startups come together to progress clever world-saving ideas at Creative HQ
Wellington – 23 March 2022 Carbon capture technology, AI recycling and ‘Xero for climate change‘ are just a few of the ten ingenious new startup innovations from around Aotearoa set to be supercharged in the virtual Climate Response Accelerator, a…
FEIJOA: A Wellington Fintech making saving as simple as spending
Meet Feijoa There’s a quiet behavioural problem at the heart of personal finance: saving requires sustained, deliberate effort over decades, while spending requires almost none. Wellington fintech Feijoa is built on the premise that this imbalance can be fixed. Feijoa’s…
Get Funded
Who we worked with KiwiNet What we did together Get scientists ready to pitch with a 2-day workshop Key skills Pitching, Market validation Take scientists from all over the country who have amazing big ideas, based on years of research…
LINZ LiDAR Data
Who we worked with LINZ NZ What we did together GovTech Accelerator The problem Imagine if we had a 3D model of the entire country – managing land, understanding natural hazards, adapting to climate change, surveying, engineering and construction would…
Antipodean Albatross
Who we worked with DOC and Fisheries NZ What we did together GovTech Accelerator Key skills Applied innovation Read more Thousands petition for greater seabird protection – ODT The Antipodean Albatross population is critically endangered due to by-catchmortality in international…
Resilience Aotearoa
Who we worked with LINZ, National emergy management agency What we did together GovTech Accelerator During an emergency, reliable geospatial data is a critical asset for a successful response. This crucial information isn’t always easy to find, analyse or take…
Building NZ Fintechs
Everything you need to start, scale and lead in New Zealand’s fastest-growing tech sector. Building a Fintech startup? Start here. Created by Creative HQ with Aotearoa’s Fintech community, this guide gives you the tools, connections, and know-how to take your…
GovTech Accelerator 2022: individual applications are now open
We are looking for people who are adaptable, open-minded, team players, and want to co-design impactful solutions for central and local government. You’ll be joining an existing project to provide support during the accelerator. If this sounds like you, register…
“No rules, no recipe” – the Wellington startup that made investing accessible to over half a million Kiwis
“But what if I want to invest just $50?” Sharesies all started with a problem and a conversation between friends and colleagues. Now, over half a million Kiwis use their investment platform every day. We hear from Sharesies co-founder and…
Founder Stories – Jessie Stanley
After successfully exiting her first venture, I Love Pies, Jessie Stanley wanted her next chapter to really matter. A food technologist with deep experience in product development, she’d spent years inside the food industry and had seen firsthand the scale…
Fiji Launches Innovation Hub with European Union, Australia and New Zealand Support
JOINT MEDIA RELEASE: Suva, Fiji – 17 July 2025 In a major boost to Fiji’s financial services landscape, the UN Capital Development Fund, UN Development Programme, Reserve Bank of Fiji, Mastercard and New Zealand innovation agency Creative HQ, have collaborated to unveil…
12 New Zealand female entrepreneurs you need to know in 2026
New Zealand’s tech sector moves our country forward in ways that matter – new approaches to managing money, tools to tackle climate challenges, more resilient infrastructure, products that make everyday life a little better. Innovation is in our Kiwi DNA….
Startup Stories – Hnry
The FinTech Accelerator programme alumni Hnry is a great example of the power of building a scalable solution on a straightforward problem that is experienced by many people. What is Hnry? Hnry, founded by James and Claire Fuller, is an…
Startup Stories – GeoBind
GeoBind is one of the more recent success stories to come through Creative HQ’s doors. Founded by partners Alice Hosted and Doug Sturrock, GeoBind is a great illustration of the highly creative, impact-focused companies that are now being built in…
Startup Stories – FTN Motion
You can’t go far in Wellington without seeing a Streetdog from FTN Motion cruising by you on the roads. They are rideable works of art. We were fortunate enough to be able to work with the FTN team in our…
I just experienced an innovation sprint that actually worked
Op-ed written by Claudia Rees, Creative HQ Senior Innovation Specialist. What a week inside a sprint actually looks like (and why it matters for the public sector) I’ve spent enough time in the public sector to know what it feels…
Startup Stories – Roady
For founder Roscoe Price Moor, Roady NZ started with a simple idea: to monetise the classic Kiwi road trip. Initially, the business offered self-drive tour packages – car, accommodation, and personalised itineraries for international travellers. The response was strong, but…
We’re asking researchers to bake a cake without a recipe
Thought-leadership piece by Catherine Jones, Creative HQ’s CEO Asking our researchers to commercialise their discoveries can be like asking them to bake a cake without a recipe. Our busy scientists, engineers, and researchers are some of the brightest minds in…
Startup Stories – Last Myle
Powering a Smarter Future for Energy Rethinking the Last Mile For most of us, energy begins and ends at the switch but behind the scenes, the last mile of delivery is the most expensive, inefficient, and carbon-intensive part of the…
In the age of the Unicorn, what support are we giving to the foals?
At Creative HQ, we have been supporting founders for yonks. Nearly 20 years to be exact. Over this time we’ve run a wide range of startup support programmes: from incubators to accelerators and things in between. We’ve supported all kinds…
We’ve innovated with
