Brought to you by Creative HQ
Aurora Climate Lab
Backing bold and impact-driven founders to reach new heights.
NZโs Climate Tech Accelerator
This isnโt your run-of-the-mill accelerator. Itโs a rallying call to back the bold ideas that will shape our future and position NZ as a climate tech leader on the global stage. Supported by partners and sponsors investing in our future.
This 12 week programme is specifically designed to wrap the right support, resources and community around these startups so they can achieve a yearโs worth of progress in a fraction of the time.
Key dates
28- 30 April โ Basecamp launch (in-person, in Wellington)
29 April โ Aurora Climate Lab launch party
30 July โ Aurora Climate Tech Summit 2026 – Tickets here
Why are we
backing Climate
Tech?
Outside of the urgent need to build solutions that will combat climate change and protect our clean green way of living, Aotearoa is also facing a cost of living crisis with pressure added by our aging energy infrastructure. For this yearโs cohort, there is a special focus on clean energy and scalable energy solutions.
$291+ million
revenue generated in New Zealand over the past 2 years
310+
Climate Tech companies operating in New Zealand
$535 million
investment attracted by NZ Climate Tech companies
Meet the 2026 Aurora cohort
Cullbeck
CullBeck’s mission is to help decarbonise the steel industry. Spun out of Victoria University of Wellington, it is commercialising a novel hydrogen direct reduced iron process.
Learn more
Its proprietary reactor converts titanomagnetite ore, including ironsand, into high-purity iron and critical minerals using 100% hydrogenโeliminating COโ emissions from steelmaking.
Founders: Martin Hacon,
Chris Jansen and Bavinesh Maisuria
DataLoom
DataLoom provides climate transition foresight for businesses – software that connects climate data, market risk, and business performance so that transition pathways can be safely stress-tested against real world impacts before committing capital.
Learn more
Founders: Ashleigh Adair and Graeme Merrall
Website:
www.dataloom.pro
LinkedIn
EVisi
We enable commercial electric vehicle operators to reduce operating costs and transition to low carbon transport by making fleet charger optimisation and electric vehicle telemetry easy to manage.
Learn more
Founder: Chris Olson
Website: www.evisi.co
LinkedIn
Futurity Bio-Ventures
High-performance renewable chemicals & materials. We harness lignin, the worldโs second most abundant natural polymer, to develop alternatives to petrochemicals.
Learn more
Founder: Jacob Kohn
Website: www.futuritybioventures.com
LinkedIn
Gaian Technologies
Gaian is developing nature-inspired LVDC microgrids for decentralised renewable energy. Built from modular DER units, systems can run independently or connect into scalable networks.
Learn more
Integrated compute nodes add a decentralised digital layer, enhancing optimisation, resilience, security and revenueโcreating a fast, cost-effective alternative to traditional grid infrastructure.
Founders: Samuel Sutherland, Darcy Maddren and Luca Dromgool
Website: gaiangrid.com
LinkedIn
GridGPT
GridGPT is an AI-powered energy technology company building next-generation tools for power system planning and grid connection studies.
Learn more
Combining deep engineering expertise with advanced agentic AI, it helps utilities, developers and investors accelerate interconnection studies, improve planning and reduce costs. By automating complex workflows with technical rigour, GridGPT enables faster decarbonisation, stronger grid resilience and more efficient delivery of critical energy infrastructure locally in New Zealand and internationally.
Founders: Nasser Usman Faarooqui and Syed Khader Basha
Website: gridgpt.ai
LinkedIn
Grid Share
Grid Share transforms the biggest challenges of the energy transitionโgrid congestion, landfill emissions, and renewable energy wasteโinto high-value compute resources.
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By deploying energy-flexible compute modules directly at the source of stranded energy, we turn environmental liabilities into digital assets. We provide the essential balancing layer that allows renewable projects to scale faster and landfills to decarbonise profitably.
Founders: Sam Kivi
Website: www.gridshare.co
LinkedIn
Heatr
Heatr is a New Zealand energy tech company turning hot water cylinders into smart, grid-responsive assets. By measuring real-time stored energy, it enables precise load controlโreducing peak demand, supporting solar uptake and improving grid stability using existing infrastructure without affecting comfort.
Hyphera
Hyphera is building the next generation of sustainable materials using fungi. We provide manufacturers with solutions to replace synthetic, non-regenerative inputs, like petrochemicals, with functional, biobased alternatives.
Learn more
Founders: Jessica Chiang,
Gautam M Nair and James Ferrier
Website: numeraai.co.nz
LinkedIn
Kiwileather Innovations
We provide environmentally conscious materials, sustainably and scalable for a variety of projects. Originating from discarded kiwifruit, Kiwileather Innovations has developed a plastic-free leather alternative validated through rigorous research.
Learn more
Designed for performance, durability and modern luxury, its materials enable brands to create responsibly without compromising on quality, performance or sophistication.
Founder: Shelley Houston
Mackwell & Co. Ltd
Mackwell’s mobile engines will make our communities energy resilient by powering New Zealands’s transport, agriculture and forestry industries with locally sourced unprocessed low-grade, high moisture-content and waste biomass.
Learn more
Our engines provide dispatchable rotary shaft or electrical power from a mechanically robust and uncomplicated mobile platform at a cost significantly below that of fossil fuels over their lifetimes.
Founders: Johan Esterhuizen and Sam Mackwell
Website: mackwell.co.nz
LinkedIn
PhaseFoam
PhaseFoam is a deep-tech University of Auckland spin-out developing phase change materialโbased cooling systems that store and release thermal energy for sustained refrigeration.
Learn more
Its cooling system technology replaces diesel-powered truck refrigeration for transporting dairy and fresh produce, helping cold-chain operators reduce costs, eliminate diesel use and cut emissions without compromising cooling performance or reliability.
Founders: Sam Farid,
Mohammed Farid and
Anila Antony
Website: www.phasefoam.com
LinkedIn
The Research Sandbox
We are building a hybrid AI + physics platform that predicts localised weather at the 10โ100 metre scale, providing actionable insights and enabling industries like energy, agriculture and aerospace to make better operational decisions.
Learn more
Founder: Inge Rademeyer
Snap Power
Snap Power is reimagining how Kiwi households and businesses get value from their solar, batteries, and electric vehicles. Instead of accepting locked-in contracts for low buy-back rates, we help you unlock more value from the green assets you’ve already invested in and further accelerate your pay-back periods.
Learn more
Founder: Kat O’Sullivan
Website: snappower.co.nz
LinkedIn
SwellGen
Emissions-free water and electricity for remote coastal and island communities. Life essentials from the power of the ocean – generated for you, by you in your beautiful place by the sea. No need for sunshine, wind or rain. Just the breathing of the sea.
Learn more
Founders: Mela Greenslade and David Greenslade
Website: www.swellgen.co.nz
LinkedIn
Looking back: 2025 Aurora Climate Lab
Last year, we worked with 15 amazing teams who were hand-selected as Creative HQโs 2025 Aurora Climate Lab cohort.
We witnessed these teams showcase their final work at Aurora Climate Lab Summit in June, and wow, did they deliver. Check out the full BusinessDesk story to learn more.
Ngฤ mihi to our Aurora Climate Lab partners
Alumni from our past accelerators
Holly Beals
Senior Innovation Specialist
Supporting climate tech founders to build and scale is one of the most powerful ways to drive meaningful climate impact. With the right backing, their solutions can create lasting change across industries, communities and our economy.
Curious to learn more?