Auckland-based Windcave, which first broke into the TIN200 top 10 two years ago, was the second-biggest player in fintech with its $503m revenue (the largest, once again, was Xero, with $2.75b).

The maker of payment terminals and provider of payment services, which employs around 400 staff and manufactures locally, has recently been on a big push into the US.

Shanahan says it’s typical of the ambition of Windcave’s founder and sole owner, Andy Cullen, that “if you go to the US, you’d think as a small guy you’d go to some of the Midwest states. He’s gone straight to New York”.

A TIN200 rising star, Halter (now incorporated in Delaware after drawing major US venture capital) also pushed into North America, while Rocket Lab announced its acquisition of US-based satellite network operator Iridium for US$8b, doubling the size of the Sir Peter Beck-founded firm at a stroke.

Retail crime prevention and reporting firm Auror also continued to make strides in the US on the back of a major investment from American firm Axon Enterprise (formerly Taser International).

North America became the largest market for New Zealand’s TIN200 companies for the first time, generating $5.9b in revenue. Australia was the largest market last year.

The secrets of our success

How did Kiwi tech firms increase their US revenue, despite the obstacle of tariffs?

It helped that software was exempt – a boon to the ASX-listed, US-managed and Wellington-registered Xero, which increased its revenue from $2.10b to $2.75b, in part through its purchase of Israeli-American payments platform Melio (even if investors took fright at the deal, contributing, along with AI qualms, to a 56% plunge in its share price over the past year). Companies in other sectors were able to raise their prices, Shanahan said.

He also identified four factors, which he said helped our high-tech exporters across the board.

Another highlight was high-tech manufacturing, which saw revenue grow 11.7% to $11.2b on the back of strong years for top 10 players F&P Healthcare, F&P Appliances and Gallagher Group (which saw huge growth, in part on the back of its smart collar for cattle which is neck-and-neck – so to speak – with Halter’s product as the two Kiwi companies dominate a new global sector) and Christchurch stalwarts HamiltonJet and Tait Communications (also a top 10 mainstay).

Why are tech’s official numbers so much lower?

If you go to Statistics New Zealand’s international trade dashboard page, you find the largest exports for the year to June 2026, listed as:

Stats NZ does not report a technology category, but two tech-related categories feature in its top five services exports for the period:

There’s also the wider issue of what constitutes a New Zealand company, and export revenue.

“As I post every year at this time, offshore revenues are not exports,” MBIE adviser Andrew McCallum sniffed on LinkedIn after a Herald post on the TIN200 2025 report.

Cases in point include Fisher & Paykel Appliances, which has been owned by China’s Haier since 2012 and has moved all its manufacturing to China, Mexico and other locations.

It remains in the TIN200 index by dint of maintaining a research and development crew in Auckland – though it’s also worth highlighting that this year F&P Appliances opened a new $220m R&D facility in Auckland, employing 800 (see video above).

And while Rocket Lab has continued to grow in New Zealand, where it has more than 1000 staff, it is now incorporated in Delaware and makes most of its revenue in the US.

Beck says Kiwis should celebrate Rocket Lab taking the necessary-for-growth step of going global, which has funded its substantial local expansion. But regardless, it is now an American company, booking most of its revenue in the US.

And Grinding Gear Games (GGG), which smashed into the top 10 as the only newcomer this year with $423m revenue, is now 100% owned by China’s Tencent – the recipient of just under $200m in dividends over GGG’s past two financial years. Nevertheless, the firm has boosted its West Auckland staff from 114 to 280 since its acquisition.

Shanahan says firms like F&P Appliances and GGG have grown through foreign investment.

But he also said, “One of the interesting things that we see this year is the growth of private companies without venture capital investment.

“Tait Electronics, Gallagher Group and the standout performer, Windcave, have all grown strongly.

“So I think one of the things that we have to achieve is to get New Zealanders to invest more in New Zealand companies, so the ownership and the growth and the benefits are retained within New Zealand.”

While TIN200 uses a very broad brush to describe local tech, it excludes the likes of Spark (FY2026 revenue: $3.95b), 2degrees ($1.46b) and Chorus ($1.03b) because they lack an export focus.

More puzzlingly, it also excludes NZX-listed Infratil, the half-owner of fast-growing Australian firm CDC Data Centres and a major stakeholder in windfarm, solar and battery storage players Longroad Energy (the US), Gurin Energy (Asia) and Galileo Energy (Europe), plus UK data centre operator Kao Data (Infratil also owns 100% of One NZ).

Election fever

AI, and the associated explosion of data centres, were a huge issue in the US midterm elections this week, particularly in Texas and Ohio, two of the states where incumbents were tumbled out of power. Here, tech has been a muted side note.

What would Shanahan like to see from the next Government, whoever’s leading it?

“One of the areas that is important is the development of research and development. Support from the Government for that is absolutely critical.

“The 200 companies in the TIN report now spend on R&D more than 50% of the total amount of R&D spent in New Zealand, so they are major, major contributors. How can the Government help them to invest risk capital into technologies that may or may not work?”

Things have already ticked up in start-up investment, in part on the back of the new Golden Visa scheme, helping to top up the funnel for the next generation of TIN200 contenders.

The latest Young Company Finance report from NZ Growth Capital Partners (NZGCP) and Angel Association NZ showed $776m was invested over 68 deals in the first half of the 2026 calendar year, an increase of 114% from H1 2025, Shanahan noted.

BNZ early-stage companies

This year’s TIN200 also featured a bank-sponsored list of 10 companies outside the TIN200, in the early stages of their lifecycle.

“The companies have been selected based on an assessment of the innovation of their technology and the potential market opportunity,” the report said.

They were, in alphabetical order:

Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer. He has recently written about Christchurch’s emergence as a space, healthtech and cleantech hub, the components of New Zealand’s “$2.68 billion” space sector, Gallagher Group’s hiring spree, the under-the-radar growth of Starshipit and Auror’s global growth and what keeps its founder awake at 3am.