Billion Dollar Revenue Growth for New Zealand’s Tech Export Sector

19 October 2016
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Annual TIN100 Report reveals record revenue growth of 12% over past year, contributing $9.4 billion to the New Zealand economy

Auckland, 19 October 2016 – Growth in New Zealand’s booming technology export sector has broken through the $1 billion mark for the first time, underlining the sector’s ascendance as a key driver for the country’s overall economic growth.

New Zealand’s leading 200 tech “exporters” continued to grow strongly in size and diversity, increasing revenue by a record 12% over the past year to reach combined revenues of $9.4 billion, according to the 2016 TIN100 Report. Double-digit growth was spread across geographies, market sectors and company sizes, with the growth also resulting in a record number of new tech sector jobs.

These are some of the key findings of the twelfth annual TIN100 Report, an analysis of the performance of the top 200 New Zealand-founded high-tech companies, announced at a launch and awards ceremony held at Mantells on the Water in Auckland on Wednesday, 19 October. The findings will also be presented at launch events in Wellington and Christchurch on 26 and 27 October, respectively.

The TIN100 Report monitors the performance of New Zealand’s 200 (TIN100 and Next100) largest technology exporters in the areas of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), High-tech Manufacturing and Biotechnology. It is produced by Technology Investment Network (TIN) and sponsored by NZTE, Callaghan Innovation, EY and AJ Park.

In addition to the TIN100 rankings which include the EY Ten Companies to Watch 2016 and Ten Hot Emerging Companies 2016, for the first time this year’s report also lists 100 promising New Zealand Early Stage Companies and provides in-depth profiles of ten of these firms.

“In no previous year since the launch of the TIN100 Report 12 years ago, has change been so dramatic or widespread”, said TIN Managing Director, Greg Shanahan. “This year’s data signals that an inflexion point has been passed as the industry hits critical momentum, reflecting longer term acceleration of technology growth and a significant closure of the export earnings gap between dairy and tech.”

“We’re also seeing changing dynamics across the industry as more companies are expanding through acquisition than ever before, more investment is being made across the entire breadth of company life cycles and more high growth companies across a range of sectors are muscling out the single market powerhouses,” Mr. Shanahan added.

Key findings of this year’s TIN100 Report include:

  • Offshore revenues totaled nearly $7 billion, up 13.5% on last year
  • US exports increased nearly 26% to more than $2 billion, buoyed by currency shifts. The European market grew 12.5% and the Asia market 11.7%
  • ICT led Primary Sector revenue growth (up 17.3%), but Manufacturing contributed the most revenue in dollar terms (61% of total)
  • Healthcare ($1.686 million) surpassed Appliances ($1.682 million) as the largest secondary technology sector. Financial Services Technology (31.2%) and Digital Media (24.3%) sectors recorded the highest percentage gains
  • TIN200 companies created nearly 3,000 new jobs in the past year, up 7.9%. They now employ almost 40,000 people.
  • Record 16% growth in R&D spend, now accounting for nearly 9% of total revenues of TIN200 companies
  • Record 31 acquisitions were made by TIN200 companies in the past 12 months
  • 40% more TIN200 companies generated revenues over $50 million than five years ago
  • Wellington led regional revenue growth (15.3%), while Auckland contributed the greatest proportion of revenue ($5.4 billion). The South Island grew 9.2% (see footnote for additional regional data)

Copies of the TIN100 Report are available in eBook or hard copy and can be ordered from TIN100.com. Lists of the top ten and most promising companies in each category are listed below, along with a regional breakdown.

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