When I first told colleagues, industry friends and family that I was moving from Singapore to New Zealand to continue my journey in venture capital, the reactions were almost identical:

“Wait… what’s there in New Zealand’s tech ecosystem? Are you sure you’re not wasting your time there sourcing for deals which might not be that compelling or globally-competitive?”

At the time, I honestly didn’t know how to respond – I’d never step foot in New Zealand before. I’d heard about its breathtaking landscapes, its reputation as a honeymoon destination among Singaporeans and of course, Lord of the Rings – but that was about it. So my only response was: “I’m not sure. But I guess I’ll find out”.

When I applied for the role at WNT Ventures, I knew the organisation has been around for a while and just celebrated a decade in deep-tech – no small feat in the world of deeptech investing. The fact that we have just raised our Fourth Fund is testimony not only to the performance of WNT but also the future of deep-tech in Aotearoa. It didn’t take long for me to come to a decision and take a leap of faith. And leap I did.

Six months later, I believe I’m in a better position now to answer that question — though it still feels like I’m learning more about the country and its way of life every day. Along the way, I’ve also seen areas where New Zealand can (and should) punch above its weight in years to come, much like Singapore has despite similar population sizes.

Before joining WNT Ventures, I had spent several years investing immersed in the deep-tech ecosystem in Singapore and spent short stints across US hubs like San Francisco, New York and Boston. Those experiences have shaped what I think are essential ingredients for an innovation ecosystem to thrive, with the most successful generally excelling in these four areas:

1) Talent
2) Infrastructure & Institutions
3) Capital & Funding
4) Culture & Community

These four pillars form a useful framework for me to benchmark New Zealand’s growing deep-tech scene. That said, I do caveat that these are personal observations and opinions— I’m still learning something new about the ecosystem everyday and I might form a different view in a year’s time 😊

1 | Talent — Structure vs Freedom

It is not an age-old secret – Talent is the single most important engine of any startup ecosystem.
Singapore has always treated talent as its greatest resource — out of necessity. With few natural assets, Singapore has carved its reputation as a skilled labour hub, underpinned by an education system that rewards hard work, precision and consistency. The result is a highly skilled workforce trained to execute and be efficient in processing tasks. Any little downtime in Singapore is seen to translate into economic losses and it has made a name for itself initially through manufacturing in early days to a sprawling Finance and Tourist hub today, making it an attractive destination for global companies to setup shop to access the rest of SEA (political stability being another important factor but the People theme is consistent).

But structure has its trade-offs. Creativity and risk-taking can take longer to emerge. And as a result, greater government intervention is needed to develop scientist-entrepreneurs. While commercialisation has gained momentum, and there has been notable success stories, the country still face challenges trying to convince professors/ researchers to trade their cushy, stable jobs in tertiary institution for a riskier startup role.

In contrast, New Zealand’s education and cultural environment seem to nurture independent thinking and creative problem solving from an early age. There’s more room (and acceptance/ leniency) to explore, make mistakes, and approach problems laterally – a mentality instilled since young where outdoor play is encouraged. This has resulted in a strong pipeline of engineers that has formed the backbone of NZ’s startup ecosystem, birthing world-class companies like RocketLab, LanzaTech and Halter that are industry leaders in their own respective fields. The recycling of talent through homegrown startups forms a healthy virtuous cycle — something New Zealand arguably has an upper hand over Singapore, whose biggest tech successes (Grab, Sea Group, PatSnap) are outliers rather than a pattern.

Overall, New Zealand and Singapore have both found success in developing and attracting world-class scientists (though Singapore still lead in terms of university rankings), but the varying appetite for risk can be observed. In my opinion, if Singapore produces disciplined builders, New Zealand cultivates curious explorers. The next step is translating that curiosity into global ambition – which WNT, through our networks and experience, aims to unlock for companies within our portfolio.

2 | Infrastructure & Government — Centralisation vs Connectivity

Singapore’s innovation infrastructure reflects decades of coordinated planning. From Block 71 — a cluster of 600 startups collectively worth billions — to a dense network of accelerators, research institutes, and funding programs (eg. SSG-Equity), the country has skilfully engineered a startup ecosystem where density drives dynamism. In Singapore, it doesn’t just develop 5-year roadmap, but 10-year, 20-, 50- year visions (given its small size and therefore, the need to plan meticulously the use of every area/ plot of land) and vibrancy at areas like One North have been deliberately cultivated over the past few decades. When founders, investors, and policymakers share physical proximity, ideas collide faster and networks deepen.

New Zealand’s ecosystem, by comparison, is still distributed — but not disconnected. Innovation hubs like the Newmarket Innovation Precinct are strong anchors to foster cross-pollination and deep-tech innovation, while initiatives like Momentum (Return on Science) seek to assemble the brightest and most ambitious entrepreneurs in New Zealand to chart the path for each major sectors and cities of Aotearoa. To further improve commercialisation outcomes, we also saw the merger and formation of 4 major Research Institutes and Auckland has signalled its intention to lead as the “Block 71 of Aoteaora”.

Through Callaghan Innovation, substantial public funding has flowed into the ecosystem, supporting success stories like Foundry Labs, Mint Innovation and GoodAir Nosebuds. That said, further investment in upstream R&D will be essential to produce globally differentiated, first-in-class technologies rather than incremental ones. And Aotearoa has proven to generate world-class tech – I recently found out that the programming language R was invented at the University of Auckland! With greater government support and coordination, New Zealand can be better-positioned to thrive and compete (R&D spend at 1.5% of GDP pales in comparison to OECD averages of 2.7% ).

In a nutshell, Singapore thrives on coordination; New Zealand’s opportunity lies in connection. With the recent initiatives announced, we at WNT are excited to leverage our long-standing partnership with Callaghan to invest in (hopefully) a larger, better pipeline of deep-tech startups in years to come.

3 | Capital — Depth vs Access

Singapore’s wealth is deep but often conservative. Family offices and sovereign funds have dominated headlines in Singapore the last few years (fuelled by US-China tension), yet much of that capital prioritises preservation over risk. Notwithstanding, public-private co-investment schemes have fuelled growth, and Singapore today is one of the best places, even for a Kiwi startup, to raise growth-stage funding from international investors (Series B and beyond).
New Zealand, meanwhile, has less sophisticated investors but surprisingly, has a fairly deep pool of early-stage financing options. Unlike Singapore where I’ve observed angels generally investing in-silos, there are organised Angel groups in Aotearoa such as Flying Kiwi Angels, Angel HQ and Mainland Angels that provide easy entry points for founders raising pre-seed to Series A rounds. There is a dearth in growth-stage financing but New Zealand is a conducive environment to incubate and testbed novel concepts, and raise further capital once enough milestones are achieved.

Investors with global mandates have not been sufficiently exposed to Kiwi innovation, but the recent narrative seem to be changing. Recent bright spots have raised investor eyebrows – such as Quantify Photonics acquisition, growth-stage financing from established VCs (eg. Halter, Aspiring Materials) and success on public exchanges (eg. Rocket Lab, LanzaTech). As long as New Zealand can continue to play to its sector strengths of Aerospace, Sustainability and Agrifood, while also prioritising other growing bright spots (Medtech, Nuclear, Geothermal) – investors would continue to fund interesting technologies.

4 | Culture & Mindset — Hunger vs Harmony

Lastly, the starkest difference lies in pace (and ambition).
In Singapore, founders are perpetually in motion. The default mode is on — emails at midnight, sprints over marathons. That relentlessness drives growth and an ingrained mindset to excel.

In New Zealand, there is prioritisation in work-life balance, with avenues to explore things outside of work. The challenge for New Zealand founders isn’t capability — it’s ambition, urgency and hunger. An investor in Singapore once told me that one of his assessment criteria is whether the founder wakes up everyday with a burning desire to solve the problem he’s going after. And we need more of such mentality in Aotearoa, not just at the leadership level but across teams. Startups don’t need to “fail fast and fail often”; they need to fail intelligently, stay resilient and pivot if needed.

The next wave of deep-tech success in Aotearoa will be defined by our and future pool of entrepreneurs and the mindset they adopt. We at WNT Ventures don’t invest in startups building for the New Zealand market, nor the ANZ region; we back technologies with global relevance and founders with global ambitions.

Closing Reflection

After working across three ecosystems — Singapore’s structured precision, America’s relentless scale, and New Zealand’s quiet confidence — it is clear that there’s no single formula for innovation. There are strengths and weaknesses unique to each country and New Zealand will need to maintain its pace of innovation to stay relevant in the next generation likely defined by breakthroughs in AI, Quantum Computing and Hard-Tech.

It’s still early innings in Aotearoa, but that’s the space we’re helping shape here at WNT Ventures. After six months, I’m convinced that we with small mindset shifts and a collective effort, New Zealand can build a globally recognised deep-tech ecosystem – one that can powers the economy for generations to come.