Big tech names seek meeting with Collins as funding set to expire

• Published date: 25 April 2024
• Publication title: Bay of Plenty Times

They include executives at Xero, Datacom (NZ’s largest home-grown IT services firm with 6500 staff), Gallagher (which had its genesis in electric fencing but now makes high-tech animal and human security systems, including software), and multiple software firms that are on the rise

All are members of KiwiSaaS (SaaS stands for software-as-a-service or cloud software that runs over the internet), a group formed in 2021 that gained $11.2 million in funding from the previous Government in Budget 2022. The group, which employs full-time staff, has used the funds for training, education and other efforts to boost the sector. It has 3768 members across 605 companies.

The KiwiSaaS leaders say in their letter they want to meet with Collins “to help inform and collaborate on the Government’s future plans for the SaaS sector, to maintain the incredible momentum the sector has achieved”.

“We know time is against us with the current support for kiwiSaaS ending June 30.” The Herald understands the letter was sent on April 8.

As of late yesterday, a reply had not been received from Collins, her staff or any Government agency, according to a KiwiSaaS insider.

He feared KiwiSaaS could become “collateral damage” in the Government’s broad-strokes cost-cutting efforts, “when this is exactly the sort of thing they need to be doing to boost productivity and exports”. The average salary in the sector was $105,000, he said.

Although the sector has faced challenges over the past year, with hefty layoffs at Xero, online retail specialist CIN7 and others, the letter detailed stats on the sector’s...