Growing Wave of NZ Firms Set up Shop in Colorado

More than two dozen New Zealand firms, many start-ups, have set up shop in the Colorado cities of Denver and Boulder in recent years, making the region a launching pad for their American ambitions, Denver Post correspondent Aldo Svaldi reports.

New Zealand has about 900,000 fewer residents than Colorado, leaving it with a limited domestic market even when adding in customers from nearby Australia. Though small, the country is a hotbed for innovations with a global reach.

“The mindset in Colorado suits New Zealanders very well,” said Andy Burner, vice president of people and business operations at Xero, a provider of cloud-based business accounting software. “I was blown away by how welcoming and open the city is.”

Xero, a rapidly growing competitor to QuickBooks, relocated its Americas headquarters from San Francisco to metro Denver in 2017. From about 80 local employees before the move, Denver is now home to more than 200 of the company’s 300 US workers, Svaldi writes.

Most of the New Zealand companies coming to Colorado are tech-focused, and some focus on aerospace. Agriculture and energy are other areas of overlap. Among the New Zealand companies setting up operations in Colorado are AD Instruments, Adeption, Auror, Cin7, FileInvite, Fingermark, Holmes Solutions, Medtech Global, TracPlus and Vend.

Original article by Aldo Svaldi, The Mercury News, September 18, 2021.