Smart new business venture
The latest addition to Christchurch’s Innovation Precinct – a business incubator – opened its doors on Wednesday.
The Government-funded project, dubbed ‘‘GreenHouse Innovation Hub’’ had its official opening at the new premises on Lichfield St, in the southeast of the central city, with Science and Technology Minister Steven Joyce snipping the ribbon.
The Innovation Hub will support early-stage ICT and digital business ideas, offering working space, guidance, business support and collaboration.
The building lease for three years and fitout was funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment at a cost of $900,000 and the Canterbury Development Corporation, the region’s economic development agency, will run the hub.
The refurbished building is owned by an Auckland development company StudioD4, and once housed a brothel, a brewery and a craft shop.
GreenHouse can accommodate up to 50 individuals ranging from companies that have barely started to ones that are in their early growth stage.
The tenants will have to reach agreed targets every six months to remain there. Performance indicators could include revenue, company worth, customer numbers and composition and a developing workforce.
Vodafone Foundation chairman Antony Welton said projects such as GreenHouse were vital to the success of the precinct, which had so far been dominated by large anchor tenants rather than smaller startups.
Vodafone, adventure clothing company Kathmandu and crimefighting software company Wynyard are three big players who are building premises in the Innovation Precinct.
Welton said: ‘‘We need diversity in the precinct, not just large multinationals like Vodafone, but also small businesses, bringing difference of thought, and difference of practice.’’
Joyce said the presence of small startups benefited both the large and small businesses.
‘‘You’ve got to have that heft if you like in the precinct . . . but you’ve also got to have the startups, you’ve got to have the newbies and you’ve got to have the spaces that encourages that to occur and this is exactly that.’’
He said there could be more in the works to accommodate small businesses and startups, but ‘‘we will see how this evolves first’’.
It was important to have the CPIT nearby as new young graduates entered the local workforce. Those were the ingredients to create an opportunity to seed development in the city beyond the rebuild.
Joyce said the hi-tech sector accounted for $930 million worth of exports last year, a figure expected to reach $1.5 billion by 2020.
While there was a lot of debate about dairying at present it was important to note that the ICT sector was 1.7 per cent of GDP while dairy was 4 per cent.
Canterbury Development Corporation chief executive Tom Hooper said one of the firms at the hub could be the next Tait or the next Jade Corporation.
‘‘By creating the ecosystem around it we hope that we give them a better chance than they would have otherwise,’’ he said.
CDC Innovation would run the hub and about four of its almost 40 staff would be involved, though not fulltime.
Joyce acknowledged EPIC’s role in helping start momentum behind the innovation culture in the city which he understood was going from strength to strength.
The hub will start out accommodating four business tenants:
Xeal Mobile, an online mobile website builder for small businesses.
Staff Buddy, a mobile health and safety software company
Maprogress, adventure race tracking software producer
Debtor Daddy, an automated credit control system producer
These tenants will get up to 18 months of cheap accommodation, as well as access to mentoring and business infrastructure.
Also operating out of the space will be Lightning Lab, a 12-week mentor-intensive programme to help get startups running.
Developed in the US, Lightning Lab has previously only operated in the North Island, but will launch its South Island programme from August this year.