Health & Life Sciences.
A diverse mix of established and emerging businesses that span medtech, biotech and digital health.
Sector Overview
Auckland is home to businesses making life-enhancing treatments and technologies more accessible and improving patient outcomes worldwide.
Digital health and medical device companies form the backbone of the sector, supported by strong government and private sector investment. Auckland-based healthtech businesses are addressing healthcare challenges on a global scale, with around 90% of sector revenue generated through exports.
The sector includes a growing cohort of high-growth companies, including deep tech ventures emerging from university research institutes. These businesses are driving innovation through collaboration between scientists, engineers, clinicians and industry partners, helping to accelerate the development and commercialisation of new technologies.
In biotechnology, established companies and emerging ventures are translating decades of molecular, biomedical and life sciences research into pharmaceuticals, diagnostics and regenerative therapies.
Learn more about Auckland's medtech sector
Why Auckland for Health & Life Sciences?
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Active research ecosystems
Leading institutions, such as the University of Auckland and University of Otago, rank among the top 150 globally for lifesciences and medicine, with bioengineering a real strength in Auckland. They're part of a national industry-research network, including the Consortium for Medical Device Technologies (CMDT) and innovation hub Medtech-iQ, both headquartered in Auckland.
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Proven commercialisation pathways
The region excels in research translation, supported by institutions, including the University of Auckland and Auckland University of Technology, alongside strong government funding and a healthy private capital market. Ecosystem partners, such as Te Tītoki Mataora (MedTech Research Translator) and the Auckland Bioengineering Institute, accelerate the translation of science into clinical use.
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AI-driven innovation
Auckland's strength in artificial intelligence is driving digital health innovation, from HeartLab's AI-powered cardiology imaging to Toku's ophthalmology diagnostics, which secured the country's largest healthtech investment in 2023. The New Zealand Institute for Advanced Technology (NZIAT) AI hub is based in Auckland, targeting health as a priority sector.
Ecosystem
ORGANISATIONS
Businesses
Research and Funding
Success story
Avasa: The Auckland startup rewriting a 60-year-old surgery issue
Avasa is proof that a deep-tech medical device can be designed, built and funded entirely from Auckland, then taken to the world's most demanding market.
Founded in 2018 by Nandoun Abeysekera, a former plastic surgery resident, the business is solving a problem that surgeons have lived with for six decades: arteries in reconstructive microsurgery are still hand-sewn, a process that can take up to an hour per vessel. Abeysekera's device aims to do for arteries what an existing coupler already does for veins – cutting that time dramatically while improving patient outcomes.
He built the business from inside the University of Auckland's Bioengineering Institute, with early backing from UniServices that stretched NZ$200,000 across four years of development. Since then, Avasa has raised around NZ$8 million from investors including Bridgewest Ventures, Callaghan Innovation and Movac.
The business is now gathering safety data for a submission to the United States Food and Drug Administration, targeting clearance in 2027, with large American cancer reconstruction centres lined up as its first market. For Abeysekera, it's confirmation that Auckland was the right place to start.
Work with us
Meet Dr Renoh Chalakkal, our medtech specialist.
Works with companies and stakeholders to foster innovation and investment in medtech and fintech.
