Startups secure $3m as lightning fund strikes

Sam Bonney, programme manager of the Lightning Lab at last week's angel investment meeting in Wellington. Photo / supplied

Nine start-up firms secured $3 million in funding at an angel investment event held in Wellington last week.

The "demo day" was the culmination of a three month boot camp accelerator programme for the companies, named the Lightning Lab, which was organised by Wellington business incubator Creative HQ.

The nine firms, which received $18,000 in seed funding each, worked with around 100 mentors from across New Zealand in the lead-up to the event. Companies in the programme included a start-up that has created a new way for sports teams to raise sponsorship money and another that has developed a cloud-based tracking and analytics system that manufacturers can use to fight back against counterfeits.

On Wednesday last week the start-ups pitched their business plans to more than 140 investors at Te Papa.

Lightning Lab programme director Dan Khan said the angel investment community was looking for market traction and early results.

"This is for companies which were mostly based on ideas back in February," Khan said. "They have covered some incredible ground since - to have it endorsed by seasoned investors seeing the value and investing is huge validation of the results these teams have achieved and the Lightning Lab programme itself."

The Lightning Lab selected the nine start-ups from 80 applications in September last year.