On 16 October, the University of Auckland’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) celebrated 21 years and announced the winners of the Velocity $100k challenge. In addition to speeches by senior leaders of the University, guests were treated to inspiring talks by a selection of alumni and successful entrepreneurs. Amongst such luminaries, one talk that stood out was that given by serial entrepreneur Naomi Ballantyne, founder of Life Insurance company, Partners Life. Naomi gave a very frank account of what it takes to found and grow a successful company. Suffice it to say, it is not a journey for the faint-hearted!

First place in the Velocity challenge and a cheque for $25,000 went to QuickMas, an agritech solution designed to detect whether a cow has mastitis, help identify the pathogen causing it and determine whether the cow has responded to antibiotics. Second place and a $15,000 prize went to the team behind ROSS, an AI-powered platform designed to support engineers in the resolution of equipment breakdowns in the food and beverage manufacturing industry by accessing a global knowledge base.