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, weโre growing an ecosystem where innovation can thrive. Proudly based in Wellington, NZ.
We back bold ideas and the people behind them โ founders, intrapreneurs and public sector leaders โ who are shaping whatโs next.
From start-ups to government, we empower change-makers to succeed, transform organisations, and prepare for the future of work. Together, weโre 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 whatโs next. Whether youโre 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 youโre curious, youโre invited.
Your startup launchpad
Since 2003, weโve supported 400+ startup founders
Empowering you to innovate
Across the globe, weโre working with leading organisations to drive impactful change.
Connect with the ecosystem
From our founders
A thriving ecosystem awaits
Weโre 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 weโre proud of it.
Innovation GPS (Was Barometer)
Who we worked with Department of Internal Affairs, NZTE, NZ G2G, Victoria University of Wellington, StatsNZ, Public Service Commission What we did together Develop a new tool to measure innovation in government Senior leaders in the NZ public sector see…
Training the changemakers of the future
Who we worked with Participants aged 16-24 years old and local businesses What we did together 15-week innovation programme Key skills Applied Innovation – lean, agile, discovery, ideation, market validation, prototyping Read more Stuff – “How to make brands like…
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 HQโs innovation and startup programmes at Wellingtonโs innovation hub. Nationwide women make up 17% of business founders. Further, women-founded or…
Catherine Jones: Women are driving change in Aotearoa’s innovation space.
I recently attended an executive education course at Stanford University, and in a room of 80 business leaders from around the world, only eight were women. I found that fact odd, a little bit shocking even. In my daily interactions,…
Leading NZ founders join Creative HQ as brand ambassadors
Wellington, New Zealand โ 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 โ 6 June 2024: Creative HQโs 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…
The organisations investing in Wellington tech and startups
Behind every thriving startup ecosystem is a network of organisations that connect capital with opportunity. In Wellington, that network is collaborative, well-structured and increasingly outward-looking. This month, weโre spotlighting key investor organisations committing capital into the region: As New Zealandโs…
Myths, joys and lessons learned: entrepreneurship after 50
When we asked AI to create an image of a โstereotypical startup founder,โ it gave us exactly what youโd expect – a young, gym-fit Pฤkehฤ guy in jeans, trendy sneakers, and a plain t-shirt. Heโs glued to his laptop, surrounded…
COUNT: A WellingtonโSeattle story and the future of accounting software
Meet Wellingtonโs newest accounting startup: COUNT COUNTโs founders see the accounting SaaS industry as ripe for disruption – with large incumbents dominating the market, prices too high, and innovation having slowed. At the same time, accountants and bookkeepers are spending…
Wellington’s ‘Creative Tech’ scene has a new starting point
Creative HQ wraps Creative Tech Activate Not all founders are ready to commit to a full accelerator or a longer-term incubator. But every founder needs somewhere to start – a place to test their ideas, find their footing, and connect…
Government Accelerator in the Philippines: Valenzuela City & New Zealand Government Innovative Social Welfare Programme
Who we worked with Valenzuela City What we did together 16-week accelerator Key skills Innovation methodologies and tools, human-centred design, team collaboration and online collaboration Read more Valenzuela City, New Zealand Government Showcase Innovative Social Welfare Programme Since 2018, Creative…
Fintech Lab 2025
In 2025, Fourteen trailblazing teams joined the ranks of Fintech Lab alumni like Sharesies, Hnry, Tapi, Cove Insurance, and First AML โ compressing a yearโs worth of progress into an intensive 3-month accelerator. Fintech startups drive job creation, build wealth and generate valuable intellectual property for…
Transpower
Who we worked with Transpower What we did together 10-day challenge Key Skills Problem discovery, ideation Transpower is a New Zealand company with a big job: manage all the long-distance electricity transmission across the country. Electricity generated by power plants…
Contact Energy
Who we worked with Contact Energy What we did together Design sprint Key Skills Problem Discovery, Ideation, Prototyping Contact Energy is one of New Zealandโs leading energy generators and retailers, providing electricity, natural gas and LPG to about 562,000 customers…
Gen Z calls for innovation to be taught in schools
Wellington โ 15 December 2021: A new study from Wellingtonโs 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….
Research and Development Tax Incentive, with Callaghan Innovation
Who we worked with Callaghan Innovation What we did together A series of sprints to re-design the customer experience for the RDTI The Research and Development Tax Incentive (RDTI) scheme is New Zealand’s largest government financial support mechanism for R&D….
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…
Spotlight: Pioneering Innovations for a Sustainable Future
Interview with Carl Vink from Whakatupu Aotearoa Foundation What we did together Whakatupu Aotearoa Foundation is a partner with us for the Climate Response Accelerator 2024 Carl Vink Chief Executive at Whakatupu Aotearoa Foundation Whakatupu Aotearoa, a strategic philanthropic foundation…
‘New Creative HQ programme backs bold Climate Tech founders’: The Aurora Climate Lab has kicked off with 15 impact-driven teams.
Wellington โ 14 April 2025: Fifteen founders with bold new ideas on how to tackle the climate crisis are currently embarking on Creative HQโs Aurora Climate Lab to supercharge their start-up journey. โAurora Climate Lab is our fourth accelerator backing…
How to get stakeholders buy-in from the start
Projects worth pursuing never exist in isolation. If thereโs someone who wants the solution that youโre creating, it stands to reason that there are people who will care about it along the way. In the context of government, this can…
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 โ 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…
Prototyping: how to test your idea before going to market
Do you remember wanting a particular toy when you were a kid? Maybe it was a Furby, or a Tamagotchi, or maybe a stick and hoop, depending on what generation youโre from. Everyone else had one and you were convinced…
Could Creative Tech be Wellingtonโs next goldmine?
Itโs a match. The cityโs creatives are joining forces with the tech sector to support the next generation of creators, and Creative HQ believes that with the right support, Creative Tech has the potential to become Wellingtonโs next goldmine. Announced…
Meet the startups building better financial services in New Zealand
A strong Fintech sector matters for New Zealand. Financial services shape how people save, borrow, invest, insure and run businesses. When these systems are more accessible, efficient and trustworthy, the benefits compound across the economy โ from household resilience to…
Pลneke Artist Intensive
Who we worked with Artists based in Wellington What we did together 3-month accelerator programme Skills Applied innovation tools After 12-weeks of running Ringatoi Pลneke Artist Intensive (PAI), we can confirm that innovation and arts are a great match. New Zealand’s…
Fledgling Kiwi startups dive into the world of tech as new Incubator programme kicks off at Creative HQ
Wellington โ 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, Wellingtonโs innovation hub. This yearโs Incubator cohort is loaded with…
GovTech Accelerator Case Study
Who we worked with Government agencies What we did together 13-week Accelerator Skills Co-design, Applied Innovation tools Read more “Westpac announces $375k over three years to solve NZ Inc issues through GovTech” – Stuff Since 2018, Creative HQ has run…
Tourism Design Accelerator
Who we worked with Tourism startups and organisations What we did together 12-months coaching through our Accelerator startup programme Key Skills Lean, Agile, Market validation Read more “Tourism Accelerator launches to help startup founders re-shape thetourism industry.” – Tourism Export…
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 โXero for climate changeโ 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…
Te Puni Kลkiri
Who we worked with Te Puni Kลkiri What we did together 10-day sprint The Ministry has a broad mandate to support whฤnau Mฤori to thrive, through policy design and implementation, monitoring other government departmentsโ work, and relationship management and advocacy…
Spotlight: Nurturing Innovation in Agriculture
Interview with Stuart Kay from Ballance Agri-Nutrients What we did together Ballance Agri-Nutrients is a partner with us for the Climate Response Accelerator 2024 Stuart Kay, Innovation Lead at Ballance In the heart of New Zealand’s agricultural sector, innovation isn’t…
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, sheโd spent years inside the food industry and had seen firsthand the scale…
Founder Stories – Emily Blythe
Emily Blythe started her founderโs journey at an early age and we started working with her when she joined our first Venture Up young founders programme back in 2015. Emily has gone on to have a very impressive founderโs journey…
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 Fijiโs 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…
Founder Stories โ Carlos Chambers
From Lab Tech in an accelerator to CEO of an accelerator company in 6 months, Carlos Chambersโ founder journey started off with a bang. Over the years, he learned a lot about leadership and went on to create and lead…
Spotlight: Motion Capital. Empowering Climate Innovation with Purpose
Interview with Lachlan Nixon, Founding Partner at Motion Capital What we did together Motion Capital is a partner with us for the Climate Response Accelerator 2024 Chris Harris & Lachlan Nixon of Motion Capital Motion Capital is a new venture…
Founder Stories – Tal Meser
Tal Meser always wanted to start a business. But he dropped out of University and found himself in debt and โliving off noodlesโ when he came to Creative HQ and started working with us. After a couple of startup attempts,…
Founder Stories – Sasha Lockley
For Sasha Lockley, the founder of Money Sweet Spot, starting a fintech wasnโt about disrupting markets, it was about making fixing debt more human. Her mission is deeply personal: to create โthe best place in the world to get out…
5 challenges of online facilitation and how to overcome them
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has seen an increase in workplace reliance on digital tools and embracing of the remote work model. Some companies have been operating 100% remotely for the past two years, working with teams that are…
Ideation: how can you come up with great ideas quickly
Ideation is an activity that every person engages in almost every day without even realising it. When youโre weighing the options of what to have for dinner or considering which route will get you home quicker, youโre ideating. Cool, right?…
Tech Groups in Wellington: How to Find Your Community
Wellington has a thriving community for innovation, startups and all things tech. Behind the scenes, there is a dynamic network of developers, designers, founders and curious learners who are coming together to share ideas, build projects and support one anotherโs…
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….
5 Ideation techniques to spark innovation
Ideation is a process in which you create a large number of diverse ideas, with the intention of quantity over quality. Common techniques include mind mapping, storyboarding and brainstorming, but sometimes using the same methods over and over again can stifle…
Five application tips you should know before applying for a startup programme
What do CVs, online recipes and programme applications have in common? Many of them can be terribly hard to read and make it hard to find what youโre looking for. As a selection team, we see hundreds of applications, and…
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…
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 weโve run a wide range of startup support programmes: from incubators to accelerators and things in between. Weโve supported all kinds…
Startup Stories – Indus
Connecting global economies and making investing more accessible for Kiwis A bold vision When Jai Goradia and his co-founders started Indus, a New Zealand-based Fintech company, his vision was bold: to open Indiaโs financial markets to the world. For the…
We’ve innovated with
