Pegasus Startup World Cup Final Showcases Kiwi Innovation on the Kāpiti Coast 

The event brought together twelve of the country's most promising early-stage tech ventures to compete for a coveted place at the global Grand Finale in San Francisco.

The winner of the New Zealand Finals at Te Raukura ki Kāpiti was Scention Bio, represented by Andrew Kralicek who are harnessing the insects' sense of smell to detect everything from disease through to environmental hazards.

Each startup had just four minutes to pitch and two minutes for questions before the winner was announced. Scentian Bio has won flights and accommodation to fly to San Francisco and pitch for a US $1 million investment prize next week.

Second place winner, Forever Harvest represented by Mick Riley, won US $5000 cloud credits from AWS, and third place was Wellington’s Uunafit with Viv Baartman and Edgar Rodriguez Ramirez.

The Kāpiti Coast was proudly represented by two ventures: 

Outfox – supporting small and medium businesses to strengthen their digital resilience. Outfox makes cybersecurity simple, accessible, and practical, helping SMEs stay protected against evolving threats. 

Orba Shoes – tackling waste in the footwear industry with renewable materials. Their flagship Ghost sneaker is made from 95%+ USDA-certified bio-based rubber and plant fibres and is fully compostable at the end of its life. As a certified B Corp, Orba proves that style, durability, and affordability can align with sustainability. 

Sponsored by Pegasus Tech Ventures, Gracy Chen (Bitget), AWS, Callaghan Innovation, Epic Execution.