Best Environment Companies in New Zealand
The 98 best Environment companies in New Zealand in 2026, ranked by funding and momentum. Funding, investors, founders, valuation, tech stack and live signals. Top: WEL Networks.
New Zealand's Environment sector has 98 tracked companies and $150M in disclosed funding, and if you want to know where the real weight sits, WEL Networks alone accounts for $101M of that total. That's not a rounding error. It's the kind of concentration that shapes how you read the rest of the list. Aquafortus follows at $24M, then Capture6 at $7M, with Lightyears Solar and HydrOxSys each pulling $4M. The global environmental services market sits at roughly $68.8B in 2024 and is forecast to reach $73.5B by 2025 at a 5.3% CAGR, driven by tightening environmental regulations and climate change mitigation mandates that are landing hard in markets like New Zealand's.
So what's moving right now? Median install growth across environmental and renewables apps is running at roughly +20% YoY, which tells you digital engagement with this sector is accelerating fast. Hot coverage themes this quarter include climate mobilization and transformational leadership, and how external pressures reshape startup strategy is a live question for every founder on this list. I'd watch the investor side closely too: New Zealand Growth Capital Partners, Icehouse Ventures, and K1W1 are the names showing up most consistently. No unicorns yet, but the funding momentum and the regulatory tailwinds suggest that gap won't stay open indefinitely.
- Research Reports World
Our analysis of 309 Environment companies
$75.8b in tracked funding; 79% of the stack-profiled cohort runs cloud-native; funding activity peaked in 2025.
Ranked: Best Environment companies in New Zealand
| # | Company | Disclosed funding | Last round | Stage | Founder | Founded | Tech stack | Recent signals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WEL Networks Provides innovative electricity distribution solutions & services | $101M | 95 mo ago | Funding Raised | Michael Underhill CEO | 1988 | Apple iCloud MailMicrosoft 365Ruby+19 | 1 launch · 1 partnership |
| 2 | Aquafortus Provider of waste water management services | $24M | 39 mo ago | Deadpooled | Stewart Taylor Founder | 2014 | — | 1 launch |
| 3 | Capture6 Developer of direct air capture technology removing CO₂ and producing freshwater. | $7M | 15 mo ago | Series A | — | 2021 | WordPress Block EditorElementorWordPress+25 | 2 partnerships · 1 expansion · 1 award |
| 4 | Solagri Developer of solar energy projects | $4M | 54 mo ago | Series A | — | 2018 | — | — |
| 5 | HydrOxSys Developer of membrane technology for wastewater filtration services | $4M | 36 mo ago | Seed | Andrew Reding Co-Founder | 2012 | — | — |
| 6 | Lightyears Solar Developer of utility scale solar energy power projects | $4M | 26 mo ago | Series A | Sean Tobin Co-Founder | 2019 | Squarespace CommerceCart FunctionalitySquarespace+18 | 3 job openings · 1 expansion |
| 7 | TracPlus Global Tech Tracking service provider | $3M | 73 mo ago | Series A | — | 2007 | HubSpot CMS HubAtlassian Statuspagelit-html+23 | — |
| 8 | Zincovery Provider of waste management services | $2M | 43 mo ago | Seed | Aaron Marshall Co-Founder | 2019 | GoDaddy Website BuilderVimeoReact+9 | — |
| 9 | NIWA Provider of environment consultancy services | $1M | 88 mo ago | Funding Raised | — | 1992 | TypeScriptNode.jsBootstrap+15 | — |
Top 12 Environment companies in New Zealand
#1
Series A · Rotorua, Bay Of Plenty · founded 2021 · 28 employees$6.8Mraised▾
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- Mar 2025Series A$27.5M
- Jan 2023Series A$6.8M
#2
Series A · Auckland, Auckland · founded 2019 · 5 employees$3.6Mraised▾
Developer of utility scale solar energy power projects
- Mar 2024Series A$3.6M
#3
Deadpooled · Auckland, Auckland · founded 2014 · 30 employees$24.5Mraised▾
Provider of waste water management services
- Feb 2023Series A$17M
- Sep 2021Series A$7.5M
#4
Seed · Auckland, Auckland · founded 2012 · 12 employees$4Mraised▾
Manufacturer of osmotic membranes intended for filtration applications. The company's membranes are made using proprietary treated polyethylene that is manufactured by applying innovative technology and processing inexpensive material and can be used for micro, ultra, and infiltration, as well as for water extraction applications, enabling industries to get low-cost, efficient, and long-lasting membranes for reverse osmosis and forward osmosis filtration applications.
- Jun 2023Seed$1.9M
- Apr 2014Seed$2.1M
#5
Funding Raised · Hamilton, Waikato · founded 1988 · 324 employees$101.4Mraised▾
The company distributes electricity to Hamilton region for over 100 years,connecting over 160,000 people to electricity through 93,000 installation connection points.
- Jun 2018Conventional Debt$101.4M
- Jun 2018PE—
#6
Seed · Christchurch, Canterbury · founded 2019 · 12 employees$1.8Mraised▾
Operator of a zinc recycling company intended to turn metal waste into reusable and valuable materials. The company recycles waste acid from zinc and extracts the valuable materials it contains, enabling clients to tackle the problem of zinc and acid released into landfills and wastewater every year through the steel galvanizing process.
- Nov 2022Seed$1.8M
#7
Series A · Christchurch, Canterbury · founded 2018 · 8 employees$4Mraised▾
Developer of solar plant designed to generate low-cost solar electricity. The company's technology generates its own renewable electricity from sunlight, offering farmers capital-free solar as a service, enabling clients to optimize environmentally sustainable agribusiness.
- Dec 2021Series A$4M
#8
Series A · Dunedin, Otago · founded 2007 · 29 employees$3.1Mraised▾
TracPlus provides real-time tracking products and services to private, business, military and government customers. Uses satellite, web and mobile technology to locate, manage, monitor, and share tracking information of air, sea, and land assets including personnel tracking. Customers include Lockheed Martin, NAFC, Garden City Helicopters, Coastguard New Zealand, Royal Flying Doctor Service, St John among others.
- May 2020Series A$3.1M
#9
Funding Raised · Auckland, Auckland · founded 1992 · 821 employees$1.1Mraised▾
Provider of environment consultancy services
- Feb 2019Grant (prize money)$534.9K
- Jan 2019Grant (prize money)$528.4K
#10
Funding Raised · Auckland, Auckland · founded 1959 · 1108 employees—raised▾
Provider of environmental and engineering consultaning services
#11
Funding Raised · Auckland, Auckland · founded 2011—raised▾
Developer of a water filtration system designed to effectively purify wastewater. The company's system removes solids from wastewater and transforms the waste into pellets or slugs that can be used as fuel for fires while the separated water can be reused, enabling businesses to ensure clean disposal of wastewater resulting in less environmental impact and improved compliance.
- 2014Grant (prize money)—
#12
Acquired · Harpenden, Hertford · founded 1993 · 132 employees$38.4Mraised▾
Provider of environmental consulting and planning services catering to private and public sector organizations and residential homeowners. The company specializes in providing planning and policy, ecological planning, land and water quality assessment, landscape architecture, urban design, property advice, technical safety and process advisory services, enabling clients to maintain regulatory and environmental integrity thus achieving balanced outcomes for land, people and water.
Funding & investor landscape
Notable founders
Market landscape — 10 sub-themes by coverage
Share of Environment coverage by sub-theme.
Regulatory-risk over time rising
Funding & growth over time
funding rising · growth rising
Common questions
Rohit lives in the feed. He covers what's moving right now — the funding rounds, launches and shifts breaking across the trade press — and ties them back to where the sector is heading.