Where start-ups begin – meet the 2025 Velocity Ideas Challenge winners 

An astonishing 318 venture ideas were submitted by students and staff from across Waipapa Taumata Rau, the University of Auckland, for this year’s Velocity Ideas Challenge. 

Each submission tackled a bold idea – from solving pressing social and environmental issues to seizing exciting new market opportunities – demonstrating the innovative mindset and diverse thinking that defines the University’s community. 

Organised annually by a Velocity student leadership committee, in partnership with the Business School’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Velocity Ideas Challenge encourages students and staff to submit a 1,000-word proposal for a venture idea that could create impact. 22 winners will each take home $1,000, plus receive expert feedback to help take their ideas to the next level. Prizes are selected by 79 industry and expert judges.  

This year’s competition was especially strong, with judges remarking on the overall quality and originality of the entries, with submissions described as well thought out, creative, and commercially viable. Across all categories, the submissions were described as “absolutely incredible” and made the decision-making process genuinely challenging. 

Participants are encouraged to continue developing their ideas and consider entering Ignite Innovation to validate their idea and CIE’s new Product Development Programme to learn the basics of prototyping. Later this year, there will be the chance to submit entries to the Velocity $100k Challenge, for a chance to win a share of $100k in prizes and a place in Venture Lab, the University’s incubator programme. 

The prizegiving ceremony, held on Thursday 22 May, featured keynote speaker Bowen Pan, a Velocity alumnus and former Facebook product leader, who shared his entrepreneurial journey.  

VELOCITY IDEAS CHALLENGE WINNERS 2025

Entrants summary statements: 

AgriPhage 

A bacteriophage-based antibiotic alternative for livestock with targeted, resistance-minimised precision. Easy to use, safe, and specific, it protects animal health without harming microbiomes, reducing antibiotic resistance at its largest source. 

Bar Buddy 

Bar Buddy is a minimalist, stylish gym strap designed to protect the upper palm during strength training. It reduces discomfort from calluses and friction without compromising grip. Tailored for women seeking comfort and aesthetics, Bar Buddy blends performance and wellness, offering a breathable, sleek alternative to bulky gloves. 

DrainLogix 

DrainLogix is an intelligent multimodal surgical drain monitor that tracks volume, color, pH, turbidity, conductivity, temperature and volatile gas signatures in real time. It can accurately detect early signs of bleeding, infection, bile leaks or anastomotic failure. DrainLogix automates documentation, improve complication rescue and enable safer postoperative care. 

GoodFace 

GoodFace is an AR tool that helps Bell’s Palsy patients do home rehab. It gives real-time feedback, fun tasks, and tracks progress. It makes training easier, more interesting, and helps patients keep going. Doctors can also see patient data to better support them. 

LactoNova 

LactoNova is a novel cheese aging platform that uses tailored enzymes, microclimate control, and pulsed energy fields to accelerate maturation by up to 80 per cent, enabling artisanal and commercial producers to slash inventory time, reduce spoilage, and scale premium cheese production. 

LOTUS: Pregnancy Care 

LOTUS (Live Observation Tool for Uterogastric Symptoms) consists of a wearable device and app that gives pregnant patients real-time insights into how food, sleep, exercise, and medication affect their nausea and vomiting—empowering them to manage symptoms at home and reduce unnecessary clinic visits through instant, personalised feedback. 

QuakeDarts 

QuakeDarts are drone-deployed, biodegradable smart darts containing self-powered MEMS seismometers and long-range radios. Fired into remote fault zones, they create an autonomous mesh that triples ground-motion sensor coverage at 3% of current costs, slashing New Zealand earthquake and tsunami warning times by up to half and protecting rural communities. 

The STE²AM-X Academy 

Forget the textbooks and tests! STE²AM-X brings science alive. Students obtain NCEA credits through fixing up ecosystems, solving tech ethics, and collaborating with Māori experts. Real-world science. Real impact. Future-ready innovators for Aotearoa. 

Auckland Bioengineering Institute Prize 

Acoustic Wellness Monitor 

Auscultation (listening to organs) has a long, valuable history in medicine, but is usually ‘crudely’ applied via a passive stethoscope at one listening point. This technology and AI software combination will provide a new window on wellness status by offering remote, personalised, and continuous monitoring for improved diagnosis at an affordable cost. 

Faculty of Arts and Education 

ELdrive: Bridging Generations 

ELdrive bridges these two worlds by placing students who can’t afford accommodation together with elders who would love some company. It’s not just clever, it’s compassionate. 

Ready2Go VR Game 

Living overseas in a foreign language? Ready2Go VR Game drops you into authentic scenes to practice live dialogue, master intercultural skills, and dodge those awkward faux pas. Board the plane READY to take risks, reach out, connect, grow, and thrive from day one. 

WriteWise English Tutor 

At WriteWise we utilise AI to instantly generate quality feedback on NCEA English students’ essays. We shorten the feedback cycle which enables the betterment of the quality of English education across Aotearoa. 

Business School 

Angel Eye 

Angel Eye is the first modular Augmented Reality (AR) glasses system that delivers seamless live rear-view video to motorcyclists. It eliminates blind spots and improves safety and confidence — adaptable to any helmet. 

Faculty of Engineering and Design 

Green Grocer AI 

Green Grocer AI cuts both grocery bills and emissions in one smart step. Our platform analyses recipes, matches ingredients to real supermarket products, and optimises for weighted lower-cost, lower-carbon shopping lists. Families save money and reduce climate impact—without changing what they love to cook. 

Fetu’una’i Award 

AI for Pasifika Voices 

AI MarketBot Pro empowers Pasifika communities to maintain a digital presence by automating social media engagement. Combining robotics and AI-generated messaging, it supports cultural storytelling and community outreach—especially for small teams with limited time, resources, or digital skills. 

Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences 

WhakarongoAI 

WhakarongoAI is a soft, wearable patch that listens to the body after surgery. It continuously monitors breath, heart, and gut sounds to detect early signs of complications like pneumonia or ileus. Designed for surgical wards and rural hospitals, it helps staff act earlier, reduce delays in care, and directly target inequities. 

Kura Roa Award 

Navigating by the Stars 

An immersive planetarium experience weaving together Māori celestial navigation and kōrero tuku iho — the wisdom of our ancestors shared by tohunga Rereata Makiha. “Navigating by the Stars” invites tamariki and the public to journey through time and space, guided by the ancestors and star maps used to voyage to Aotearoa. 

Rau Pōtiki 

The team’s vision is to utilise Harakeke or Flax to create a natural, circular, traceable product ready for market with benefits for a collective of growers from Māori communities, diverting from landfill and balancing our relationship with Papatūānuku. 

Law School 

Nexus Nightspots 

Nexus Nightspots is an innovative venue discovery app, tailored and designed to revolutionise the nightlife experience for both Bar and Nightclub owners, and Bar/Nightclub goers in Auckland, New Zealand. Our app works to connect users with personalised recommendations based on their music preferences and behaviour, utilising data integration from Spotify, Apple Music and SoundCloud to ensure each suggestion matches their unique tastes. Our app will display the locations of venues on a map and with each venue, a page will be provided with info on opening hours, pricing, and deals/promotions that the venue is offering. 

Liggins Institute 

NextGen Autonomous Farming Drone 

AI Agri TV is an autonomous drone system with rapid-charging technology that revolutionizes farming through precision agriculture. Our drones with payloads of 15-85kg conduct crop monitoring, targeted spraying, and livestock management while operating for up to 6 hours, reducing chemical use by 90% and improving farm productivity. 

Medtech-iQ 

AutoScope 

AutoScope is an autonomous laparoscopic camera system that uses AI and real-time computer vision to intelligently follow the surgical field. It eliminates the need for a camera assistant, enhances surgical precision, and improves safety, bringing autonomous vision to every laparoscopic case. 

Faculty of Science 

New Zealand Scallop Hatchery 

The New Zealand scallop aquaculture industry is on the rise but will continue to be limited by wild-caught spat numbers. Developing a scallop hatchery geared toward species specific needs will allow for on demand spat year-round to supply grow out operations to market size.