Velocity spin-out Kami wins American Chamber of Commerce export award
18 August 2017
The start-up, which began as an idea in the University's Velocity challenge, won the Exporter of the Year (under $1m) category at the prestigious awards.
Kami, an edtech application, won the Exporter of the Year to the USA under $1 million in the 2017 American Chamber of Commerce DHL Express Success and Innovation Awards.
Kami founders and Velocity alumni Hengjie Wang and Alliv Samson are honoured to receive the award. “It’s a great moment for a tech start-up to be recognised by the American Chamber of Commerce."
The US market offers an important opportunity for New Zealand tech companies. These awards showcased New Zealand’s innovation talent, who are taking on the world with their products and services.
Hengjie, a University of Auckland engineering graduate, and Alliv, a graduate of the Faculty of Arts, both participated in the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s Velocity programme.
They were Velocity $100k finalists in 2012 with Notable.ac, which has now become Kami. Both have remained involved with Velocity, sharing their knowledge with future entrepreneurs as speakers, mentors and judges.
“Velocity connected us with our early advisers and investors and has helped us to be more confident in building and growing our company.”
For Kami, the US market is an exciting opportunity; it offers them a potential customer base with fast adoption and integration. After focusing for their first two years on product and growth, it was mid-last year that Kami started to put their energy into building sales.
“Winning the Exporter of the Year to the USA under $1 million is a great acknowledgement that we are on the right track to achieving our goals. However, to sustain our fast growth, we are constantly on the lookout for driven undergraduates to join our Auckland-based team.”