Best Media & Entertainment Companies in New Zealand
The 151 best Media & Entertainment companies in New Zealand in 2026, ranked by funding and momentum. Funding, investors, founders, valuation, tech stack and live signals. Top: Narrative.
Ranking the top Media & Entertainment companies in New Zealand by disclosed equity funding, this directory tracks 151 ventures with a combined $13M in disclosed capital. Narrative leads the pack at $5M, followed by Baboom at $4M and two companies, Space Rock Games and kin2kin, each pulling $2M. No unicorns yet, but the investor roster, New Zealand Growth Capital Partners, Icehouse Ventures, Vodafone xone, Alt Ventures, and Direct Capital, signals the funding infrastructure is real and getting more active. The global market sits around $1.96T, which puts New Zealand's slice in sharp perspective.
So what's the actual momentum story? Median install growth across 3,108 media and social apps is running at roughly +12% year-on-year, and I'd argue that number matters more than headline funding totals right now. Coverage is rising fast, with audio editor tools, playback engines, and mindfulness content emerging as the themes attracting the most attention this quarter. Demand drivers like virtual reality and augmented reality are pulling investment toward immersive formats globally, and you can see that pressure filtering into what New Zealand studios are building. The sector's thin on big exits for now, but the foundation is being laid company by company.
- Statista
Ranked: Best Media & Entertainment companies in New Zealand
| # | Company | Disclosed funding | Last round | Stage | Founder | Founded | Tech stack | Recent signals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Narrative Builds software tools for professional photographers | $5M | 71 mo ago | Series A | Steffan Levet Co-Founder | 2017 | SentryNode.jsElement UI+24 | — |
| 2 | Baboom Indie music streaming platform | $4M | 143 mo ago | Deadpooled | Marco Oliveira Co-Founder & CTO | 2014 | — | — |
| 3 | Space Rock Games Developer of games | $2M | 32 mo ago | Seed | Kieran Dunn Co-Founder - Creative Director | 2020 | WixSentryBootstrap+13 | — |
| 4 | kin2kin Photo and messaging app | $2M | 132 mo ago | Seed | Hamish Wayne McGregor Founder | 2015 | — | — |
| 5 | Melodics Developer of virtual drumming pad software to learn the music playing | $1M | 105 mo ago | Seed | — | 2014 | Node.jsRadix UIReact+17 | — |
| 6 | Imagination Television Producer of factual, reality, and entertainment television programming | $125K | 98 mo ago | Late Stage | Bettina Hollings Founder & Managing Director | 2001 | — | — |
| 7 | VectorStock Royalty-free stock vector image marketplace | $46K | 77 mo ago | Funding Raised | Stephen Green Founder & Director | 2007 | Amazon Web ServicesNew RelicPriority Hints+10 | — |
| 8 | Music Ecademy Online platform offering music learning courses | $30K | 109 mo ago | Funding Raised | Jaroslav Geoffrey Tane Novak Co-Founder & CEO | 2015 | — | — |
Top 12 Media & Entertainment companies in New Zealand
#1
Seed · Auckland, Auckland · founded 2020 · 13 employees$1.6Mraised▾
Developer of games
- Oct 2023Seed$900K
- Feb 2022Seed$650K
#2
Series A · Auckland, Auckland · founded 2017 · 26 employees$4.7Mraised▾
Builds software tools for professional photographers
- Jul 2020Series A$4M
- May 2019Seed$700K
#3
Deadpooled · Auckland, Auckland · founded 2014 · 22 employees$3.5Mraised▾
Baboom is an indie music streaming platform. It provides technological and financial tools for the artists to promote their music and fan engagement. It works on “Fair Trade Streaming” model. Fair Trade Streaming offers full visibility of payments from streaming. The model claims to provide the subscription fees from the fan directly to the artists. It also provides an event ticketing portal for music selling. It also provides music content distribution and monetization solutions for artists. Generates revenue through subscriptions.
- Jul 2014Seed$3.5M
#4
Seed · Auckland, Auckland · founded 2014 · 39 employees$1.2Mraised▾
Melodics is a music learning platform for drums, keyboards, pad controller, and other musical instruments. It develops software for pad drumming that is available for Mac and Windows devices. It offers music education with tracks, such as hip-hop, future beats, footwork, EDM, techno, trap, dubstep, downbeat, jungle, funk, soul, electronic, Bmore, electro, classic breaks, and others for playing. It also provides the insights for the users of their favorite producers, DJs, and performers for their music tracks. The mobile app is available for Android and iOS devices. Generates revenue through subscriptions.
- Sep 2017Seed$1.2M
- Aug 2016Seed—
#5
Seed · Wanaka, Otago · founded 2015$1.5Mraised▾
kin2kin is a photo and messaging app for family. It is designed to include grandparents with family across many households, busy parents and kids too young for Facebook. kin2kin is working with a number of community and commercial organisations that support or inspire youth and seniors; ranging from Alzheimer's, medical alerts, elderly health to sports and schools. They raised angel investment capital in early 2015 and launched in March 2016.
- 2015Angel$1.5M
#6
Late Stage · Auckland, Auckland · founded 2001$125Kraised▾
Producer of factual, reality, and entertainment television programming. This company creates television content for worldwide broadcast and streaming platforms. Its production capabilities encompass a wide variety of genres, including documentaries, lifestyle shows, and animation, in addition to commercials. The company has a history of developing successful television series for large audiences. It is known for its in-house production expertise and its ability to create high-quality programming.
- Apr 2018Post IPO$125K
#7
Funding Raised · Auckland, Auckland · founded 2007$46.4Kraised▾
VectorStock is a royalty-free stock vector image marketplace. Provides vector images belonging to several categories with over 10,000 vector images added daily. While some vectors are available for free, others are available on demand and on monthly subscriptions.
- Jan 2020Grant (prize money)$46.4K
#8
Funding Raised · Dunedin, Otago · founded 2015 · 2 employees$30Kraised▾
Online platform offering music learning courses. It offers music learning courses to help students learn music theory and aural skills. The courses include gamification with levels, badges, games, quizzes, class, and leaderboards. The self-paced courses are based on the curriculum of major examination boards. The company offers the courses to individual learners, private teachers, schools, and studios.
- May 2017Grant (prize money)$30K
#9
Deadpooled · Auckland, Auckland · founded 2014$18Kraised▾
Platform to organise social meetings & track friends
#10
Public · Auckland, Auckland · founded 1987—raised▾
General entertainment channel
#11
Seed · Auckland, Auckland · founded 2013 · 23 employees—raised▾
Vidapp is a developer of custom branded video apps. The company's unique offering is that it helps users sell their DVDs and videos through custom branded video apps. The apps are generally published under the developer title "Vidapps". However, the user can opt otherwise paying fixed additional costs. The company also helps users increase app store search traffic with app store search optimization.
- Apr 2017Seed—
- Seed—
#12
Acquired · Tauranga, Bay Of Plenty · founded 2013—raised▾
SoundSwith is a developer of the software that synchronizes DJ software with lightning. It integrates with existing hardware and software of the musicians. The company works on a freemium model and allows users to use a limited access version for free. The complete version is available for ~$500.
- Nov 2016Seed—
- 2015Seed—
Funding & investor landscape
Notable founders
Market landscape — 10 sub-themes by coverage
Share of Media & Entertainment 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.