Lightning Lab Manufacturing is New Zealand’s first hardware accelerator, where seven startup ventures with products as diverse as motion capture technology and sustainable surfboards, were given three months to build and scale businesses based on physical products.
The accelerator came out of a partnership between Creative HQ, Callaghan Innovation, the Hutt City Council and Grow Wellington, giving startups with a physical product the opportunity to rapidly grow their companies through a special combination of seed funding, world-class mentoring, mind-expanding workshops and intensive business development.
Harnessing Kiwi creativity and the “no. 8 wire” attitude, Lightning Lab Manufacturing was a 3-month boot camp environment where participants were required to be on-site for the duration of the programme. Teams went through a rigorous application and selection process to ensure that an acceleration programme was a good match for their needs and could significantly boost their progress.