Xero and Vend each won two awards at the New Zealand Hi-Tech Awards, which were announced at a gala dinner attended by 700 guests at Sky City in Auckland on Friday evening. Xero won Company of the Year as well as Hi-Tech Exporter of the Year Award - over $5million Award, while Vend won the Hi-Tech Exporter of the Year Award - under $5million and Innovative Service Product Award.
The Hi-Tech Awards are selected by a 50-strong panel of national and international judges, including co-founder of Apple, Steve Wozniak, director of engineering for Google in New York, Craig Nevill-Manning; director of Texas Venture Labs, Rob Adams; head of IDG Ventures in the US, Pat Kenealy and Cisco’s senior vice president, Howard Charney.
One international judge remarked: “Xero is executing the Web 2.0 playbook perfectly, blending brand building, product development, capital raising and value creation, and global expansion. Xero is the new benchmark for product-based tech companies in NZ".
Judges were also impressed with Vend’s performance. “Vend’s objective of ‘moving every bricks and mortar retailer onto the cloud’ and its execution of a strategy to achieve this goal impressed us. With thousands of retailer customers in more than 100 countries, Vend is well on the way to being a real NZ IT success story and has plenty of growth left in it yet.”
NZ Hi-Tech Trust Chair Wayne Norrie says the Hi-Tech Awards in 2013 attracted a record number of first-time entrants and record attendance at all events.
The 2013 NZ Hi-Tech Award winners are:
Fronde Hi-Tech Young Achiever
Robert Bell, UBNZ World Markets/KlickEx Corporation
New Zealand Trade and Enterprise Best Contribution to the New Zealand Hi-Tech Sector by a Multinational Company
Navico
HSBC and NZMEA Hi-Tech Exporter of the Year Award - Under $5million
Vend
HSBC and NZMEA Hi-Tech Exporter of the Year Award - Over $5million
Xero
Duncan Cotterill Innovative Software Product Award
Wynyard Group
Endace Innovative Hardware Product Award
ikeGPS
State Government of Victoria Innovative Service Product Award
Vend
Telecom Business - Most Innovative Mobile Technology Award
Carnival Labs
NZVIF Pre-commercialisation Company of the Year
Trigger Happy
Special commendation: Performance Lab Technologies
Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment Best Hi-Tech Start-up
BIMstop
Cisco Hi-Tech Emerging Company Award
GreenButton
PwC NZ Hi-Tech Company of the Year Award
Xero