The latest start-ups emerging from the University’s incubator

The 2025 Venture Lab incubator programme recently concluded with a celebration event, highlighting participants’ innovative breakthroughs and transformative growth.

Venture Lab, is the University of Auckland’s incubator. Run by Business School’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) it supports students and staff with the structure, support, and space to validate their market, develop prototypes, and secure first customers, while surrounding them with a community of mentors, peers, and advisors ready to champion their journey.

This year’s showcase was an opportunity for eight start-up teams to share their progress and celebrate everything they’ve learned and built.

The evening began with Business School kaiārahi Hone Thorpe likening the founders to the Toroa - the royal albatross. In te ao Māori, the toroa is revered for its strength, grace, and ability to make hard journeys. 

A gifted name from Hone for the programme is Pūrere Awhi. This poetical name reflects the Venture Lab’s role as an incubator, where founders are embraced and supported by mentors. Pūrere means butterfly, symbolising emergence from a protected state into something beautiful, while Awhi means to protect or embrace something fragile and provide it with the space and time it needs. Together, Pūrere Awhi is a powerful metaphor for transformation and growth.

A standout moment of the evening came from Sunny Feng, co-founder of RosterLab, a company that has gone from PhD research to an enterprise software solution helping hospitals create better staff rosters. Now based at the University’s Newmarket Innovation Precinct and fresh from completing a $1.75m seed round, RosterLab is also a Venture Lab alum. Sunny shared three key lessons from their journey: talk to customers before building, launch early and focus on product–market fit, and raise capital with conviction and clarity.

Established nearly a decade ago, Venture Lab was created to give Velocity teams somewhere to go after their win. The programme includes access to funding, and connections to investors through pathways like the University of Auckland Inventors’ Fund and Momentum Investment Committee.

As CIE Director Darsel Keane shared, “We started Venture Lab because teams needed time to figure out what’s next, time to talk to customers, and time to explore what they could build. That structure didn’t exist back then. Now, it’s become a place where ventures find their footing.”

Much of the programme’s success is credited to the dedication of long-time mentors Ken Erskine, Duncan Ledwith, and Andrew Steel, whose weekly guidance sessions gave teams both strategic direction and emotional support.

This year, the programme was expanded to include more early-stage teams beyond the Velocity prize winners, helping to grow the University’s start-up pipeline and broaden access to innovation pathways.

While the pitches showcased technical progress, user research, working prototypes, early investment conversations, but the real heart of the evening was community. Founders spoke about the highs and lows, the support from mentors and peers, and the lessons learned from testing their ideas in the real world. Many shared how personal challenges shaped their journey, and how Venture Lab gave them space not just to build - but to grow.

Align
With AI, Align aims to empower healthcare professionals to improve doctor-patient interactions and uplift health outcomes. Their approach is to automate clinical workflow and triaging, reducing costly time delays during patient consultations.  

AMES 
AMES NZ is a start-up working to develop a power-at-sea solution by capturing energy from ocean waves.

Human Metrics 
Human Metrics is a health-tech start-up dedicated to transforming workplace injury prevention through advanced machine learning and biomechanics.

MoveInsight
MoveInsight is an AI-powered movement analysis platform designed for sports and rehabilitation, delivering clear, meaningful feedback that users can understand and act on.  

QuickMas 
QuickMas is developing a rapid, accurate mastitis test suitable for on-farm use.

RAPIDOSE 
RAPIDOSE is an innovative medical device designed to ensure accurate, weight-based adrenaline dosing for children in cardiac arrest.  

ROSS 
ROSS captures and systematises engineering expertise across teams and shifts through AI-powered shift handovers, ensuring optimal staffing that accounts for factor such as operational knowledge.

VistaVision
VistaVision provides real-time, remote eye care to rural patients through advanced telerobotic technology.