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Something interesting is happening in global technology, and most New Zealanders have no idea it’s going on.
A disproportionate number of the world’s most ambitious tech companies are being built by people who grew up in our small country at the bottom of the Pacific. We’re not talking about mid-tier startups or lifestyle businesses. We’re talking about companies attracting billions in venture capital, partnering with the world’s largest corporations, and tackling problems that could reshape entire industries.
The latest example: Yang Fan Yun and Shine Wu, two former scholarship students from Auckland and Wellington, just raised US$5.6 million for their AI automation company, Composite. Their investors include Anthropic (makers of Claude AI), Menlo Ventures, and NFDG.
That’s notable. But it’s part of a much bigger pattern that deserves attention.
Start with Peter Beck. The Invercargill-raised engineer founded Rocket Lab with the audacious goal of making space access affordable for small satellites. No university degree, just a tool-and-die apprenticeship at Fisher & Paykel and an obsession with rockets.
Today, Rocket Lab is the third most frequent rocket launcher in the world. They launch from Mahia Peninsula on New Zealand’s east coast and Virginia in the United States. The company went public on the Nasdaq in 2021 and employs around 2,000 people globally, with 700 based in New Zealand.
Beck didn’t just build a company. He created an entire industry in New Zealand – aerospace manufacturing and launch services – that didn’t exist before he started.
That’s not an incremental improvement. That’s changing what’s possible.
In 2006, Rod Drury and Hamish Edwards founded Xero in Wellington. Cloud-based accounting software sounds mundane. It’s not sexy like rockets or AI. But it solved a genuine problem: making financial management accessible for small businesses without requiring them to be accountants.
Xero now has over 4 million subscribers across 180 countries. The company’s market capitalisation has exceeded NZ$15 billion. It’s become New Zealand’s most valuable company at various points and has offices worldwide.
More importantly, Xero proved that Wellington – not exactly known as a global tech hub – could produce software that competes with anything from Silicon Valley or London.
Dave Ferguson studied law at Otago University before discovering robotics. He worked on NASA’s Mars rovers, then became a principal engineer on Google’s self-driving car project. In 2016, he co-founded Nuro with Jiajun Zhu.
Nuro builds autonomous delivery vehicles – not robotaxis for people, but purpose-built vehicles for goods. The company has raised over US$2 billion and was valued at US$8.6 billion. Partners include FedEx, Domino’s, Uber, and major grocery chains.
Ferguson has maintained ties to New Zealand through Icehouse Ventures and created a scholarship at Otago University. He’s not just succeeding overseas; he’s actively trying to build pathways for the next generation.
Meanwhile, Alex Kendall grew up in Christchurch, studied mechatronics engineering at Auckland University, and then won a Woolf Fisher Scholarship to Cambridge. He co-founded Wayve in 2017, developing AI technology for autonomous vehicles that learns to drive like humans rather than relying on detailed pre-programmed maps.
Wayve raised US$1.05 billion in 2024 from investors including SoftBank, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The UK Prime Minister visited their London headquarters to celebrate “the biggest investment in a UK AI company ever.”
Two Kiwis, two different approaches to autonomous vehicles, both attracting serious attention and serious money.
On the surface, these founders have little in common. Different cities, different schools, different industries, different decades. Beck never went to university; Kendall has a PhD from Cambridge. Ferguson started in law; Drury built multiple companies before Xero.
But dig deeper, and patterns emerge.
They solve real problems. Not fashionable problems or easy problems, but genuine challenges that affect millions of people or businesses. Rocket launches were too expensive; Xero made accounting manageable; Nuro and Wayve are tackling transportation; Composite eliminates digital drudgery.
They think globally from day one. None of these founders built “New Zealand companies.” They built global companies that happen to have New Zealand roots. The local market was never the endgame.
They maintain connections at home. Peter Beck keeps Rocket Lab’s R&D and launch facilities in New Zealand. Xero’s headquarters remain in Wellington. Dave Ferguson invested through Icehouse Ventures and created university scholarships. Yang and Shine deliberately brought in New Zealand investors for Composite.
They’re not afraid to be contrarian. Beck built rockets when everyone said it was impossible without government backing. Drury bet on cloud software before it was trendy. Ferguson and Kendall are building autonomous vehicles differently from the established players. Yang and Shine are automating browsers while others build entirely new ones.
Here’s something that might surprise people criticising New Zealand’s education system: it’s producing world-class technical talent.
Yang Fan Yun went to Macleans College, a state school in Auckland. He won the Prime Minister’s Award as New Zealand’s top scholarship student. Shine Wu attended Newlands College in Wellington, became Dux and Head Boy, and won a Robertson Scholarship to Duke University.
Peter Beck completed an apprenticeship at Fisher & Paykel. Alex Kendall graduated first in his engineering class at Auckland University. Dave Ferguson studied at Otago before his PhD at Carnegie Mellon.
These aren’t people who succeeded despite New Zealand’s education system. They succeeded in part because of it. Scholarship programmes, Olympiad competitions, university engineering departments, trades training – when properly resourced, these things work.
The question is whether we’re investing enough to produce the next generation of Beck, Drury, Ferguson, Kendall, Yang, and Shine.
New Zealand venture capital has improved dramatically over the past decade. Icehouse Ventures has become increasingly active. The Elevate NZ Venture Fund launched in 2020 with government support. Individual success stories like Sam Morgan (Trade Me) and Rod Drury have created angel investors who understand technology.
But we still lack the depth of capital available in the United States, the UK, or Singapore. Deep-tech companies – those building rockets, autonomous vehicles, or advanced AI – require patient capital willing to fund years of research and development before revenue appears.
That’s why these founders end up in San Francisco, London, or other established tech hubs. Not because New Zealand lacks talent or ideas, but because we lack the concentration of investors who understand and can fund ambitious technical ventures.
Icehouse Ventures invested in both Nuro and Composite. That’s excellent. But NZ$5 million into a US$203 million round for Nuro shows the scale difference. We’re participating, but we’re not leading.
Traditional thinking says talented people leaving for overseas opportunities represents “brain drain” – a loss to New Zealand. That’s partially true but incomplete.
What we’re seeing instead is “brain circulation.” Talented New Zealanders go overseas, build world-class companies, gain experience with cutting-edge technology and global markets, then maintain meaningful connections back home.
Some return permanently. Others split their time. Many invest in New Zealand startups, hire New Zealand talent, or establish operations here. They become bridges between New Zealand and global technology ecosystems.
This only works if we make it work. That means:
Investment in education. Particularly in science, technology, and mathematics. The scholarship systems and Olympiad programmes that helped produce these founders need stable, long-term funding.
Support for ambitious founders. Not just capital, but mentorship, networks, and regulatory environments that don’t punish innovation.
Immigration settings that attract global talent. Every one of these stories involves talented people from diverse backgrounds. New Zealand’s success at attracting and nurturing talent from around the world isn’t a side issue; it’s central to our innovation capacity.
Celebrating success without trying to own it. We can be proud that these founders are Kiwis without demanding they move back or criticising their overseas success.
New Zealand will never be Silicon Valley. We’re too small, too remote, too lacking in the concentration of capital and expertise that makes the Bay Area unique.
But we don’t need to be Silicon Valley. We need to be really good at producing talented, ambitious people who think globally, solve meaningful problems, and maintain connections at home.
We’re already doing this more successfully than most people realise. Peter Beck, Rod Drury, Dave Ferguson, Alex Kendall, Yang Fan Yun, Shine Wu – these aren’t isolated cases. They’re part of a pattern.
The founders of Vend, Xplor, Sharesies, Parkable, Timely, Auror, and dozens of other successful tech companies are also Kiwis. Some stayed in New Zealand. Others left but maintained ties. All of them are showing what’s possible when talented New Zealanders tackle ambitious problems.
The question isn’t whether New Zealand can produce world-class tech companies. We’re already doing it. The question is whether we’re doing enough to ensure the next generation has similar opportunities.
That requires investment, not just financially but in education, infrastructure, and support systems. It requires immigration policies that attract global talent. It requires celebrating success rather than cutting down tall poppies.
Most importantly, it requires understanding that brain circulation benefits New Zealand more than trying to prevent brain drain ever could. When Peter Beck launches satellites from Mahia Peninsula, when Xero employs hundreds in Wellington, when Dave Ferguson creates scholarships at Otago, when Yang and Shine bring in New Zealand investors – that’s brain circulation creating value at home.
Two young New Zealanders just convinced some of the world’s smartest investors to back their vision for automating browser-based work. They join a growing list of Kiwis building companies that matter on the global stage.
This should be making headlines. Instead, most New Zealanders have never heard of them or the broader pattern they represent.
We’re better at producing world-class tech founders than we realise. We’re just not very good at recognising or supporting them until after they’ve succeeded overseas.
That’s something we can change. It starts with understanding that New Zealand’s quiet tech revolution is real, it’s accelerating, and it deserves more than quiet acknowledgment.
It deserves investment, celebration, and a national conversation about how we ensure it continues.
Because these stories aren’t accidents. They’re the result of education systems, scholarship programmes, university research, trades training, and a culture that – despite our tall poppy tendencies – does produce people willing to take enormous risks to build something new.
The question is: what are we doing to make sure there are more of them?
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