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Kea Connect success stories

Matheus Vargas, Orbis Diagnostics CTO, and Professor Cather Simpson Orbis Diagnostics Founding scientist and Director, in the lab.

Tell us about Orbis Diagnostics, and the problem/s it solves?

COVID-19 has significantly impacted our ability to move about safely – within our own communities and internationally. The social and economic implications of this continue to be devastating. While people want assurance that life will return to normal, there is no clear end in sight. Without verification of a person’s level of immunity and determining whether they are capable of carrying or spreading the virus, initial vaccines being deployed this year are unlikely to support the reopening of international borders. Containment strategies such as travel bans, border restrictions and mandatory quarantine will continue in the meantime; however, existing solutions are not easily scalable and can’t accurately identify who is at risk, and who isn’t. 

Orbis Diagnostics has developed a rapid, precise, cost effective, and deployable COVID-19 quantitative immunity screening test to verify a person’s current health status to support the safe resumption of international travel. Deployment of our technology can help re-enable the movement of people, rescuing industries such as tourism, travel, aviation, and cruise ships from collapse.   

The original concept for Orbis Diagnostics’ antibody test was actually “Milk-on-a-disc” technology. Can you walk us through the pivot?

Orbis was originally directed towards animal health, its system was detecting and quantifying progesterone in milk for heat detection, to inform the timing of artificial insemination. When the pandemic took hold in early 2020, the need for a high throughput, quantitative antibody test to verify immunity to COVID-19 was clear, and Orbis’ system was perfectly suited. The team pivoted to adapting Orbis’ system to a COVID-19 immunity test, exploiting the advantages of a system designed for a wet, dirty environment, that could provide a robust, portable, accurate immunoassay system operated by non-technically qualified staff – innovative features that will enable widespread deployment. Orbis’ previous R&D success in animal health for detection of progesterone at very low concentrations has allowed the Company to shift its focus to COVID-19 screening, only requiring adaptation of its advanced technology rather than invention anew.

Orbis has now developed a Quantitative Immunity Test for COVID-19, which is currently being productised. It can process up to 15 samples simultaneously in 15 minutes, providing laboratory grade results at the point of need.

You recently announced your partnership with IDEMIA – a Multinational who is behind e-gates at airports. Congratulations! What does this partnership mean for the future of Orbis Diagnostics?

Bringing together Orbis’ technology and IDEMIA’s expertise in augmented border control, the two companies are developing a risk-driven framework for airports, governments and border control agencies. This partnership will accelerate Orbis’ product development and deployment to airports as a tool to facilitate the progressive and safe reopening of international borders as more countries hopefully become successful at suppressing the virus. We plan an initial trial together at an airport in Australasia.

When can we expect to see prototypes being piloted?

Orbis anticipates its platform is likely to be officially introduced into airports within the Asia Pacific region as early as the third quarter of 2021. As part of clinical trials, prototypes would be piloted in an airport setting earlier, potentially in the next few months.

You recently went through / are currently going through an investment round to support manufacturing and product deployment. What has been your approach to funding to date?

Pacific Channel, an early-stage investor in deep-tech ventures in New Zealand is the largest investor in Orbis. Orbis has just launched a NZ$9m investment offer to secure funds to productise its immunity test. In addition to investment from Pacific Channel and its scientific founders and early shareholders, Orbis has secured written intent from a US-based institutional impact investor. It seeks a remaining ~NZ$6.5m.

Has being a NZ-developed tech helped or hindered Orbis?

New Zealand is emerging as a leading centre for biotechnology and has been an ideal environment for Orbis’ development. The founding scientists, Professors David Williams and Cather Simpson have an outstanding record of invention, including developing the globally leading Clearblue Digital pregnancy and ovulation rapid strip tests and the first at-home fingerpick cardiac biomarker test. Of course, Orbis has also been privileged to be situated in a country with strong health policy and border security standards that kept COVID-19 prevalence low last year. The New Zealand government’s exemplary control of the virus has given Orbis time to grow its business and focus on the next challenges for the world – not just virus control and treatment. The New Zealand community is now keen to explore what needs to happen next to continue the country’s success and open us back up to the world without compromising our health sovereignty.

How important is it for NZ tech companies to set global ambitions from Day 1?

Any deep tech company should aim to advance technological frontiers. If the technology has the potential to have a real impact on a global scale, then the company owes it to themselves and the rest of the world to exploit that to its full potential.

CONTRIBUTOR

Brent Ogilvie

Interim CEO

Orbis Diagnostics

Kea member

HOW KEA CAN HELP YOUR BUSINESS GROW

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Kea Connect is a free service that will help your business grow offshore. We connect you personally with regional, sector-specific experts and peers.

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Resources

Kea is here to help New Zealand businesses grow offshore. Be inspired and hear advice from businesses who have created their export path.

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Looking for the right talent for your team? Reach our global Kiwi community through the Kea international job portal. 

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Tell us about yourself and Hoa Cleantech?

I am a Kiwi currently living in Canada who loves the outdoors and working on different ways to make a positive impact on this world. My passion for sustainability goes back many years. In 2009, I identified initiatives that would lead to sustainable beer processing at the Monteith’s brewery in Greymouth for my final year engineering project. This passion has then led me to design and develop a small electric boat, come up with a circular packaging design concept for a Singaporean skin-care company, and write about waste and the circular economy. 

A particular area I am interested in is the role of economics and innovation to drive sustainability, which led me to co-found Picea Hoa Technologies Ltd. (“Hoa Cleantech”), in 2019, with a Belgium by the name of Matthieu Loos. Hoa Cleantech is a consulting and software company with a mission to deliver economical solutions to drive industry’s transition towards decarbonised and zero-waste operations. We primarily leverage data to optimise transport decarbonisation and help our customers navigate and transition to new technologies, while reducing costs and risks. We work with utilities, local governments and private companies to deliver:

  • Fleet decarbonisation strategies.
  • Electric vehicle smart charging simulation (optimise charging infrastructure to reduce capital and operating costs). 
  • Electric vehicle grid impact assessments (using proprietary algorithms, we can provide insights into the load patterns and impact EVs have on the grid).    
  • GHG forecasts (forecast, quantify and track future CO2eq reductions from decarbonisation and zero-waste initiatives, against baselines).  

What was the process you worked through to validate your platform in-market?

Through our consulting work, we started formulating a hypothesis for a software service that organisations can use in-house to efficiently develop and track the impact (infrastructure required, costs, GHG reductions) zero-emission vehicle fleets have on their specific operation. We then developed an MVP and started talking with organisations that operate large vehicle fleets. We found potential customers were interested but would normally prefer to pay (more) for a consultant to help them in, especially when our hypothesis value proposition / MVP was leading to more of an enterprise offering. 

Therefore, we went back to the drawing board and started looking at our business model a bit differently. Meanwhile, we continued delivering consulting services, while we undertook R&D and transferred our IP into a cloud-based platform, which helps us decipher bigger data sets and deliver better solutions for our customers. 

However, we have not given up on the product idea. We are still talking with different people across different industries to find where those wants, fears and needs intersect with the features, benefits and experience we can deliver with a software service. We have also just been accepted into a cleantech accelerator program, which will help us with discovery and validation.          

In starting your own business, what has been a surprising challenge, or mistake, that sticks out to you?

Everything! When you work for a consulting company, you begin to believe that you are pretty good at most things. However, you are always a few steps away from the actual coal face (legal issues, cashflow, business development, marketing, etc.). Leaving the “safety” of working for others to start your own business, quickly brings your ego down. But, it does then teach you a lot that may take years to learn working for a company. 

Although, there is one surprising challenge I found that stands out for me. It is hard to convince people to care enough about what we are doing to make a sale. You may think / know that you could optimise their costs and GHG reductions (at a much lower cost than others), but you need a lot more than that to get a contract. I just have to keep remembering what Daniel Kehneman (a Nobel Prize winner in economics) wrote: “No one ever made a decision because of a number. They needed a story”.   

Tell us about your experience with Kea Connect since reaching out in 2019?

I reached out to Kea in late 2019 to see if I could tap into the global Kiwi network and get some advice around starting a SaaS company. This led to a series of introductions to various high-profile people, with the most notable being Lovina McMurchy. Lovina was very generous with her time and provided invaluable advice that helped structure our thinking and direction. I have found Kea always very friendly and willing to help where possible, which I am very appreciative of. 

How has Hoa Cleantech grown since 2019? 

Having just incorporated the company in June 2019, we quickly found ourselves with enough work to sustain both Matthieu and I full-time, leading us to promptly leave our respective employers. We therefore started 2020 very optimistically and had developed some aggressive growth targets. However, Covid came along and upended some of our plans and knocked our confidence – like it did for a lot of people around the world. Covid also resulted in my wife and I being back in NZ for a good chunk of 2020, while we were working remotely and trying to get back to our life in Vancouver.  

Fortunately, around October last year we managed to pick up 5 new projects and brought on board a Director of Software at 0.5FTE. We are also shortlisted to receive government funding for advanced research and commercialization of part of our technology, which is planned to be used to hire a software developer. 

What have been the most useful resources for you and your co-founders that have helped Hoa Cleantech achieve growth?

Existing customers. If you deliver quality, nothing beats the recommendation of a company you have worked with. 

Can you tell us a little bit about the projects you have recently been working on?

Sure. For a BC municipality (local government), we developed a 20-year strategic plan to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through fleet electrification and development of charging infrastructure. Their fleet consists of 154 light to heavy-duty and off-road vehicles operating out of different sites including two fire halls, a police station and operations centre. By looking at the fleet vehicle tracking data, we could model different long-term scenarios and fuel switching technologies based on annual budgets, and forecast respective GHG reductions. 

We also just completed a project to compare the total cost of ownership of using either diesel, battery electric or hydrogen fuel cell electric buses to service a city located in Canada. The client wanted to see how the costs compared as different bus technologies scaled into large fleets. Our simulations highlighted the many risks associated with moving to zero-emission bus fleets and the impact certain variables have in making either battery or hydrogen buses more competitive.     

You are due to the return home soon – What were the reasons behind your decision to move back to New Zealand?

Canada was always a short to medium term adventure to gain invaluable experience and memories to bring back home to NZ. The timing of our return in February is driven in large part by the recent arrival of my wife (another Kiwi) and my first child, and wanting our respective families to meet her.   

What has been the most unexpected challenge around managing the transition and eventual move home to New Zealand?

From a work perspective, I’m sure that will come when taxes are due… From a personal perspective, trying not to think too much about all the unknowns. 

How are you planning to manage operations of Hoa Cleantech once you make the move home?

Well Matthieu, who lives in Vancouver, will continue to lead and grow the company. We will also look to get someone new to help his BD efforts across North America. From my end, I will take that transition one step at a time.

CONTRIBUTOR

Brent Ogilvie

Interim CEO

Orbis Diagnostics

Kea member

HOW KEA CAN HELP YOUR BUSINESS GROW

Kea Connect

Kea Connect is a free service that will help your business grow offshore. We connect you personally with regional, sector-specific experts and peers.

READ MORE

Resources

Kea is here to help New Zealand businesses grow offshore. Be inspired and hear advice from businesses who have created their export path.

READ MORE

Jobs Portal

Looking for the right talent for your team? Reach our global Kiwi community through the Kea international job portal. 

READ MORE

How did Diligr come about?

When I was in New Zealand, I co-founded a business that helped Kiwi businesses get investment-ready and raise capital from investors offshore. In this time, I worked with so many interesting companies, and was blown away by both the quality of the companies, and their founders,  who hit it out of the park when it came to innovation, determination and drive. As time went on, I started working with more high-tech growth startups. The continuous feedback I received from offshore investors was how Kiwi entrepreneurs consistently punch above their weight, and that they wanted more access.

After living in this part of the world for six years, I know how geographically isolated New Zealand is particularly now with COVID-19 and the inability to travel. As a result, habits have and will continue to change, and businesses need more ways to be connected with investors. 

Also in the post-COVID-19 world, there will be a surge in new startups. We have seen this pattern in other economic shocks. We are about to enter an exciting time for startups. So, the idea behind  starting Diligr was to help startups get to a point of investment readiness where they are confident raising from investors domestically and globally, and act as that connection or access point to investors. 

With investors, the landscape is changing as well – the market in the USA and UK for instance has become so competitive. Capital is a commodity at the moment, and investors are starting to look globally to differentiate their sources of deal flow. They need to generate alpha for the investors in their fund, so they can better position themselves to raise their next funds. A lot of this is driven by sourcing deals that other investors in their sphere aren’t finding. Diligr will aim to be that access point to help them find those ‘needle in the haystack’ deals.

Can you tell us a bit about the platform?

Diligr was created to shorten and improve the capital raising experience so founders can spend less time on the process and more time where it really matters. 

To date, we have launched our first version  of the startups side of the platform. 

A key problem Diligr aims to solve relates to the time and resources a founder will spend  creating pitch deck, or other early pitching materials. A lot of the time, it’s difficult for a founder to know what information an investor will want to see, how much detail they should provide, and in what format – much time gets wasted in inconsistencies within the initial pitching phase. 

Diligr aims to allow  founders to understand what information an investor will need to make their initial evaluation, and easily create a company profile to streamline getting that first meeting. It’s important to understand that an investor will always want to look in the eyes of the founder, and Diligr isn’t designed to replace that human interaction. It will however provide a snapshot to a potential investor, to allow them to quickly assess whether the company fits their investment mandate. 

The process begins with the businesses uploading their investment-relevant information as guided by the Diligr format. 

Once all the information has been uploaded, Diligr automatically creates their shareable profile. Essentially this works like a Google Doc, where the founder receives a unique link to their profile which can be shared with the investors of their choice. 

Once their profile is completed and their profile is ready, the business jumps on to ‘Matchbook’ which is where the matchmaking piece of the platform comes to play. We have collected investment preferences for each investor on the platform, so the company then can search by filters for a shortlist of their ideal investors. 

Once a founder has made a decision on who they want to connect with, they can request an introduction to those investors, and Diligr will facilitate a connection if there is appetite on the investor’s side as well. 

A key aim for us is to reduce the time spent to get to that first meeting, and allow founders to manage this process in a much more efficient way.

Beyond match-making, we also have built in a curated resource library which aggregates content we have found particularly helpful for capital raising. At any point throughout a founder’s time on the platform, if questions arise or they want to upskill their capital raising skills, they can access these resources for support.

What are your goals for 2021?

We are building out the platform in a series of stages. The first, as mentioned above, is the single-player version for startups. Next will be the investor version which we hope will launch in the first half  of 2021. This version will allow us to automate the connection process, and connect investors and startups more easily. A huge focus for Q2 will be getting smarter with our matchmaking, by getting feedback and learning from users about what makes a good match, and what doesn’t.

By the end of 2021, we want to build Diligr to a point where the platform is the meeting place for startups and investors. To a point where we are so highly reputable, that if we are making the introduction, it’s just as good as an introduction from a peer within the industry. 

We hope that in not only improving and shortening the capital raising experience for founders, but we are also creating valuable data to help make better capital raising decisions. 

Why New Zealand, Australia and Singapore?

We wanted to start with these geographies as there is already an established level of capital flow and appetite for deal flow between the three countries. In starting with these three regions, it also means we have a small enough market to test well, get right, and create meaningful connections.

We are giving Kea members priority access to Diligr’s private beta, so if you are a founder looking to raise capital within the next 6 months, you can sign up here.

CONTRIBUTOR

Elizabeth van Rooyen

Founder

Diligr

Kea member

HOW KEA CAN HELP

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Tell us about Touchpoint Group and the Ipiphany platform

Touchpoint Group is a customer experience technology company that offers data-driven solutions for customer-centric organisations. Our feedback collection and automation tools are complemented by Ipiphany, an analytics tool that uses AI to read large volumes of open text – like app store reviews or survey comments – to give businesses enough context and understanding that they can make improvements that matter. We developed Ipiphany to provide a solution for businesses that have “feedback overload” – they get high volumes of feedback from customers, but don’t have the resources to read through it all, much less be able to prioritise it and understand how they can make the biggest difference for their customers.

What were the key decisions Touchpoint Group needed to make to expand internationally?

During our initial expansion, Frank, Founder and CEO focused on making connections with key contacts in-market, and was able to do so using the Kea Connect network. Once these relationships were underway, we had a better understanding of what aspects of Touchpoint Group – and Ipiphany – could be offered for the biggest impact in these markets.

As a result, we developed a benchmarking service for mobile banking apps, and have just rolled out an eCommerce customer journey analysis service. Both of these services use Ipiphany to provide data-driven solutions for businesses who want to harness the power of customer feedback to make improvements that truly matter for their customers.

Tell us about your experience with Kea Connect since first engaging us in 2018

In 2018, Frank approached Kea Connect for advice about expanding overseas, and specifically sought introductions to Kiwis working in the financial services sector. Kea Connect set up 15 meetings for Frank in London, who spent six days talking to Kiwis who were established in senior roles at banks such as HSBC, RBS and Standard Chartered Bank. His conversation with the Digital Product and Experience Director at Barclays, stood out. Frank says that chat convinced him to take Touchpoint Group to the UK. The need for the service in the Asia Pacific region was clearly apparent in the UK as well. 

“The connection that Kea Connect delivered was exactly the right person. He gave me confidence that we could succeed in London with our product.” As a direct result of the connection, Touchpoint Group expanded into the UK.

Kea Connect then played an instrumental role in helping Touchpoint Group break into Australia by introducing Frank to World Class New Zealander David Thodey. Within just a few days, David had introduced Frank to the right people in the telecommunications industry. “I was very impressed with the speed.”

Talking to David led to numerous business opportunities for Touchpoint Group. “We’ve ended up with an agreed action plan with four potential consulting partners and one significant opportunity in the banking sector.” Based on his experience, Frank believes Kea Connect can play an important role for expanding Kiwi SMEs. It can show business owners that they have what it takes to make it offshore. “The main value of Kea Connect is that it can help SMEs to build confidence about expanding overseas.” 

While the concept of entering a new market can be scary, Frank has found that the Kea community enjoy giving back to fellow Kiwis. “Kiwis are often quite happy to spend 30 minutes of their time having a coffee.” He says that companies thinking about trying out Kea Connect “should just do it.” 

How has Touchpoint Group grown since 2018?

As a result of Frank’s introduction to a Digital Experience Director at Barclays, Touchpoint was able to complete a successful PoC (Proof of Concept) with Barclays. Due to instability following COVID-19 this year, Barclays plans to sign on in 2021, but in the meantime it was this PoC which allowed us to develop the mobile app benchmarking service which has now been sold in Australia, to Westpac bank, and in Canada to TD Bank.

For businesses that are considering whether they are ready to expand, what would be your number one consideration or piece of advice to share?

“Do your research in-market. You don’t have to be physically in the market – especially now, but do your research and understand what the market needs”, says Frank.

Your growth focus is currently AU and UK – can you elaborate more on key opportunities you see in these markets, and the key steps you foresee being crucial to success in these markets?

Our key steps forward are very much a result of the foundational work we’ve done to identify the needs in respective markets. We’ve since expanded to include an eCommerce analysis and reporting service which puts the power of Ipiphany’s AI analytics engine in the hands of businesses wishing to improve return and retention on their eCommerce platforms. This service came about as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, as we’ve all witnessed a huge shift to online shopping across all facets of the retail space. 

The Touchpoint Group eCommerce Analysis and Reporting service is designed to help eCommerce businesses improve retention, reduce operational costs, and prioritise improvements that will yield the biggest RoI as they adjust to the exponential growth they’ve seen throughout the pandemic. We use our AI customer analytics tool, Ipiphany, to conduct a comprehensive analysis of customer feedback which helps businesses understand their performance against their competitors, identify the cause of changing metrics, and most importantly, provide enough granular detail for a business to identify data-driven solutions and measure the effectiveness of changes made.

You can read more about the service here. To see it in action, we analysed publicly available data from Walmart during the period of the first US lockdown and compared it to eight other market leaders worldwide. Using Ipiphany, we were able to identify a major problem with Walmart’s eCommerce platform that was leading to lost sales at an alarming rate – you can read more about it here.

To learn more about Ipiphany, and how AI customer analytics can drive data-driven results for your business, read an overview or contact Touchpoint Group.

CONTRIBUTOR

Brent Ogilvie

Interim CEO

Orbis Diagnostics

Kea member

HOW KEA CAN HELP YOUR BUSINESS GROW

Kea Connect

Kea Connect is a free service that will help your business grow offshore. We connect you personally with regional, sector-specific experts and peers.

READ MORE

Resources

Kea is here to help New Zealand businesses grow offshore. Be inspired and hear advice from businesses who have created their export path.

READ MORE

Jobs Portal

Looking for the right talent for your team? Reach our global Kiwi community through the Kea international job portal. 

READ MORE

Can you tell us a bit about the background of Antipodes? Did you always have global ambitions?

Antipodes® is a Scientific Green Beauty™ company from New Zealand creating award-winning premium skincare from results-driven natural ingredients. Fifteen years ago, I was searching for natural skincare that offered the same benefits as conventional skincare – but using pure New Zealand ingredients that were independently and scientifically validated. 

My background is in science, innovation, and natural health, so I understand how to bridge the gap between natural and prestige formulations. Our high-performing ingredients are sourced from New Zealand nature and our formulations are tested using in-vitro scientific investigations and clinical trials – which means our products are not only beautiful to use, but they genuinely work. 

Since launching in 2006, we’ve remained committed to our green beauty ethos which means onshore production in New Zealand, sustainably sourced ingredients, recyclable packaging, and independent verification of our organic, vegan, and vegetarian products. 

That unique approach has earned Antipodes® devotees and awards worldwide. I never doubted we would go global – and thanks to hard work and innovation, we now sell in over 40 markets on four continents. Our aim is to be the number one plant-powered scientific green beauty company in the world!

Why did you choose the US and Canada as the next location for expansion?

It’s always really important to check in with each of your export markets to see if everything is going as well as you expect. Our Canadian sales weren’t reaching our expectations for the market size and category growth, so we reviewed our operations there and decided to change distributor. 

For the USA, we had been receiving a lot of market pull – enquiries, requests, media – so it was time to explore the options for market entry.

At a broader level, clean skincare is a growing beauty trend in the US and Canada, as the eco-conscious and style-savvy alike discover the benefits of green beauty and make the move to more sustainable choices. In short, consumers increasingly want to ‘walk the talk’. Antipodes occupies a special niche where our skincare is not only green, with certified vegan and organic products, but validated by science – and that’s something we look forward to bringing more of to these markets in the months ahead.

To what extent did Covid-19 impact your expansion into the US and Canada?

If anything, it sped it up! With everyone in New Zealand in lockdown during March, calls with markets to onboard our partners continued at a rapid pace. We had planned several onboarding trips to market, but instead we assembled virtual cross-functional teams and managed everything this way.

We found that our partners were all very willing to engage – and of course, they were in a similar situation themselves, so we were all in the same boat.

With our new distributor in Canada, we participated in the virtual tradeshow CHFA East, which was a new experience for our team. With a bit of creative thinking from the organisers, these events have been able to continue, which is wonderful to see. It’s (almost) business as usual. 

During this time, we also took the opportunity to improve our ecommerce capability and relaunch our website as a key part of our launch into the USA. That was launched in June, thanks to the work of our team here in Wellington.

What does your team structure and operations look like given you can’t really travel at the moment?

We spend more time at the office, but the core of our operation hasn’t changed. We talk regularly to our distributors and retailers, whether it be by virtual or physical means. 

Travel to market is key to maintaining relationships and gaining real insight into how the market functions. While we can’t do that everywhere at the moment, there are definitely ways around it – we’re relying on video calls and asking our partners to share photos and more detailed information about consumers and the retail environment. Thanks to modern technology we don’t have to compromise those key relationships and miss out on valuable intel.

Our New Zealand market is incredibly important to us, so we’ve been ensuring that the team gets out and about to our Kiwi retailers to understand how our local customers shop and get inspiration.

Beyond Covid-19, what has been the most challenging aspect of expanding Antipodes into a new market? What has been the most rewarding?

Over fifteen years, we’ve put processes in place to ensure we hit the ground running, smoothly. New markets require lots of research, involving conversations at many levels with potential business partners, in-market expertise (e.g. NZTE), retailers, beauty buyers, media, etc, ideally including a market visit. It’s always a really exciting time which requires lots of preparation, so the biggest challenge for us is remaining patient while we work through that preparation!

The second challenge is keeping the ball rolling after launch, ensuring that we work hard with our partners to continue to build brand awareness and sales. Every market is unique, but we’ve been in business since 2006, and so have been able to refine and perfect our roadmap over time. Our cross-functional teams mean we’re able to pivot onto new projects or problems when they arise, without roadblocks.

Most rewarding is the feedback we get from consumers all around the world who have discovered our products and fallen in love with them! Some of the stories are really moving, and we’re thrilled that our products have made such a difference to the confidence of so many people globally.

What has your experience with Kea Connect been like?

Any resource that is designed to foster connections between Kiwis and our vibrant business community is going to get a huge tick from us. In any business, building networks is so important. We’re relatively new to the Kea community, but we’re thrilled that Kiwis around the world are willing to help New Zealand businesses in this way. We also work closely with NZTE in many of our overseas markets and their support has been critical to our success.

What advice would you give to businesses looking to expand into a new market during this time?

Ensure you do your research. Find out as much as you can about the market in the months prior to launch, and who your local competitors and advocates are. Visiting the market is key if you can! Take lots of photos of where and how your products/services are likely to be relevant, talk to potential customers, end-users, and PR companies, and ask lots of questions. Your goal should be to gain not only a deep understanding of the market as it currently stands, but a birds-eye view of where it’s heading.

CONTRIBUTOR

Brent Ogilvie

Interim CEO

Orbis Diagnostics

Kea member

HOW KEA CAN HELP YOUR BUSINESS GROW

Kea Connect

Kea Connect is a free service that will help your business grow offshore. We connect you personally with regional, sector-specific experts and peers.

READ MORE

Resources

Kea is here to help New Zealand businesses grow offshore. Be inspired and hear advice from businesses who have created their export path.

READ MORE

Jobs Portal

Looking for the right talent for your team? Reach our global Kiwi community through the Kea international job portal. 

READ MORE

Terry, Zifeng and Bernard

Gap in the market realised

When Zifeng was helping a recruitment agency develop an app for their hiring process, he witnessed their screening process and noticed many graduate applicants for coding positions were being discarded due to lack of practical experience – in fact he learned that 94% of graduate coders struggled to get hired in the software industry for lack of practical experience beyond the university curriculum. 

He then started thinking about the way in which people from all over the world come to be a developer.  The reality is that many coders are self-taught. Moreover, many of those who want to code don’t have access to a university education.  “Why should you need an expensive education to prove your capabilities as a developer?”

After discussion, Zifeng, Bernard, and their other Co-Founder Terry Jiang, realised there existed a gap in the market to help coders raise their professional profile, without requiring years of practical experience or a qualification.

Helping coders land their dream job, no CV required

Skillsme is a powerful platform that provides considered functionalities for both developers and those who want to hire developers. 

Every new developer to the platform is given a project set by Skillsme to complete within 48 hours. Upon completion, that developer will receive a Skillsme rating from industry leading experts from the likes of Google, Airbnb, and Facebook. This Skillsme rating is then made visible to employers on the platform. Beyond this, the users profile is completely anonymous. 

“It’s a completely merits-based assessment of a coders hireability, removing the need for a certificate,  university qualification, or years of hands on experience” 

For an employer or recruiter, Skillsme offers a seamless, effective CV screening and interview process. The open online talent pool allows businesses to have access to a global talent pool of developers, with ease assessing a candidate’s suitability through their Skillsme rating. Once an employer believes they have found the right candidates, they simply send them an invitation for a job interview directly through the platform, and via their dashboard can manage all their potential candidates and interview processes. Skillsme offers an additional referral system, whereby their AI and machine learning software refers endorsed coders to relevant employers.

Covid 19 has changed the way people are employed. “We see a big shift to agile working and companies hiring remote programmers that could be based anywhere around the world. At the same time, we recognise a lot of companies are finding it difficult to employ remote programmers due to not knowing what the technical skills of that programmer is. This is where Skillsme can help”, says Bernard.

Global disruption

The team hopes their platform will disrupt the approach to hiring developers, and that one day any developer will be able to get a job without a CV. “There needs to be less reliance on theory and professional experience, and more reliance on practical projects during the hiring process.” They want to drive a change in how the industry perceives validation, and help people realise  it is better to receive validation from those within the industry, rather than from an institution.  

Not only this, they see their platform becoming a global sensation. “We built this platform with  global ambition from day one and ultimately, we want every coder in the world to have a Skillsme rating at the beginning of their career”. 

Having only launched six months ago, the short-term focus for Zifeng and Bernard, with the support of Kea Connect, is to partner with New Zealand businesses to understand how they recruit developers, and who can provide feedback on the Skillsme platform to help them evolve.

CONTRIBUTOR

Zifeng Liang & Bernard Leong

Co-founders

Skillsme

Kea member

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