Auckland’s deep-tech bet pays off – inside the Outset Ventures incubation programme
An incubation programme for deep tech startups run by Outset Ventures with the support of Auckland Council is helping founders tackle early-stage business challenges.
Deep tech startups need more than desks, laptops, and generic mentoring to get their business underway – they need lab space, specialist facilities, technical validation, and a network that understands long-development cycles.
As part of a strategy to help deep tech businesses start, scale-up and stay in Auckland, in 2024 Auckland Council partnered with Outset Ventures, a leading deep tech incubator and venture investor, to help support pre-capital deep-tech founders grow into investment-ready companies.
Co-funded by Auckland Council’s Economic Development Office and delivered by Outset Ventures, the structured, six-month incubation programme addresses two specific needs: access to facilities for technology development and testing and hands-on capability support.
Eighteen months on, all four companies from the programme’s first cohort remain active, Auckland-based, and moving forward. One is building its customer portfolio in a commercial phase. Another has completed a capital raise and is hiring engineers for its first prototypes. A third is mid-raise with Outset Ventures’ direct support. The fourth is negotiating with an experienced entrepreneur to open a new chapter.
The Outset Ventures incubation initiative has worked so well it is continuing this year.
The first cohort: four ventures, four very different problems
The 2024–25 cohort brought together four companies that reflect the programme’s broad eligibility, spanning antimicrobial diagnostics, energy technology, geothermal chemistry, and orbital manufacturing.
The Experiment Company, trading as PAQ Laboratories, was founded in 2019 to develop testing for kānuka honey. Its analytical tools to verify the composition and authenticity of honey are now being used commercially. The company has since expanded into combatting antimicrobial resistance (AMR), developing a hardware-enabled diagnostic platform that automates bacterial resistance testing. The Experiment Company’s incubation scholarship supported the company in establishing itself in Auckland and being a part of the Outset community. By the end of 2025, the company was gaining commercial traction and progressing a seed round to support customer validation, product-market fit, and early market entry.
State of Charge, also known as Heatr, works on AI-controlled hot water heating and the digitalisation of residential hot water systems into flexible, distributed energy assets. During the programme, the team reached 95 per cent completion on its electrical design, applied for the Electricity Authority’s Innovators Pathway, and engaged potential partners in energy retail and distribution. The company is now focused on commercialisation, with the Outset network actively opening doors – including conversations with an experienced commercial operator about a co-founder role.
Aurogenic is extracting precious metals and some critical materials, such as antimony, from geothermal brines using a modular, non-invasive process that operates downstream of power generation. This process is unique in the industry as it has negligible effect on the thermal state or chemistry of the waste geothermal brine. Aurogenic completed a fundraise during the programme period and is planning its initial execution phase, based in Auckland with laboratory space at Outset Ventures.
Newton Space was founded by Jamie France, the engineer who built the Electron production system at Rocket Lab from scratch, the fastest commercial launch vehicle to reach 50 launches in history. Newton is developing satellite capsules for microgravity manufacturing: growing pharmaceutical crystals, producing next-generation semiconductors, and making flawless fibre optic cables in orbit, before a controlled re-entry returns the products to customers on the ground. Newton based themselves at Outset while working towards a capital raise during the programme and is now hiring an engineering team, building at the Outset campus.
The Outset Ventures incubation programme provides selected deep tech startups with access to the Outset Campus in Parnell, Auckland, technical and commercial guidance, validation assistance, and practical help to prepare for a capital raise.
To be eligible for the programme, companies must be Auckland-based deep tech, pre-material investment, and not supported by other institutions. Delivery sits entirely with Outset Ventures through its Startup Engine programme. Auckland Council’s role is co-funder and sponsor.
To find out more, email tech@aucklandnz.com or Konstantin.Selitskiy@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz
This article draws on programme reports and planning documents provided by Outset Ventures and Auckland Council’s Economic Development Office.