PDIHQ is New Zealand's STEM commercialisation hub: a purpose-built facility in Wellington where late-phase start-ups, SMEs, and university spinoffs get the offices, labs, and engineering workshops to take their products to the world. Without giving up equity.
Request investor pack Find out moreThe problem
Since 2022, working in collaboration with WellingtonNZ, our founder has interviewed the founders and CEOs of STEM organisations across the Wellington region. The findings were consistent, and they were blunt:
The result is a measurable decrease in innovation, and the loss is New Zealand's. That research produced a fifteen-point list of what STEM companies actually need. PDIHQ is the answer to that list.
The answer
PDIHQ is a $10 million, 2,500 square metre purpose-built innovation facility planned for Wellington, with 12 configurable tenancies. It exists to do one thing: get STEM products from working prototype to world market, faster.
Closed, not open-plan. Built for the focus and IP confidentiality that commercialisation requires.
Ready from day one for biotech, clean tech, deep tech, and consumer product chemistry. No year lost to fit-out.
CNC, 3D printing, lathes, mills, laser cutters, welding bays. The workshops the region does not currently have.
Industry-led, with product development consultancy Pro-Dev co-located in the building. Mentoring, training, and networks included.
Residents pay rent and access services: mentoring, training, workshops, and a shared engineering facility. They keep their IP, and they keep their equity. That is the difference between PDIHQ and every equity-taking incubator model.
mHUB in Chicago, the largest independent manufacturing innovation centre in the United States, supports over 300 start-ups a year through shared prototyping labs and a micro-factory, and its companies have generated more than $4.5 billion in economic activity. Greentown Labs, the world's largest climatetech incubator, has incubated over 675 start-ups that have raised more than $12.5 billion.
Nothing like this exists in New Zealand today. PDIHQ does not claim that scale on day one: those hubs prove the model works, and PDIHQ right-sizes it for New Zealand: 12 residencies, one region, one clearly evidenced gap, with room to grow as the hubs abroad did. Purpose-built labs and workshops, long-term residency, and no equity dilution.
Government backing
The Wellington Regional Economic Development Plan names a STEM product commercialisation innovation space as a key initiative for the region, and names Pro-Dev as its lead. The plan is governed by the Wellington Regional Leadership Committee: nine mayors, the chair of Greater Wellington Regional Council, and the leaders of six iwi entities, in partnership with central government.
PDIHQ is that initiative made real. This is a public-private partnership delivering an agreed government economic priority, not a private venture asking for permission.
Upper Hutt City Council, WellingtonNZ, MacDiarmid Institute, and the Wellington Regional Leadership Committee.
Hutt City Council and WellingtonNZ co-funded the independent impact studies behind the business case.
Who stands behind PDIHQ
"Upper Hutt City Council is pleased to express its strong support for the establishment of the Product Development and Innovation Headquarters (PDIHQ) in the Hutt Valley and endorses this initiative's strong alignment with the Wellington Regional Economic Development Plan." Letter of support, 28 October 2025, signed by the Chief Executive and the Mayor.
"We will continue to work with all parties to act on opportunities for alignment and collaboration, and would like the opportunity to work alongside government on enabling PDIHQ." Letter of support, General Manager Business and Innovation.
"We support the efforts of Sam Kumar and the Product Development and Innovation Headquarters as an essential ingredient in improving the Wellington region's manufacturing, commercial and employment performance." Letter of support, Deputy Director Commercialisation and Industry Engagement.
"I am happy... to fully endorse the work being undertaken on the Product Development and Innovation Headquarters and look forward to seeing this fantastic initiative... happen." Letter of support, Programme Director.
The full letters are included in the investor pack, together with the construction partnership detail for the $10 million facility.
The evidence
Infometrics, one of New Zealand's leading economic consultancies, was commissioned to independently model PDIHQ's impact across its first five years. These are their numbers, not ours.
Full-time jobs by year five, and cumulative contribution to Hutt Valley GDP.
Full-time jobs by year five, and cumulative contribution to NZ GDP at full capacity.
Youth programmes, school partnerships, and an on-site educational makerspace for ages 8 to 18.
Increasing the visibility of Māori talent in the STEM industry, with iwi representation embedded at board level.
Clean tech commercialisation supporting New Zealand's transition to a low-carbon economy.
Source: Economic impact of PDIHQ, Infometrics. Impact reports co-funded by Hutt City Council and WellingtonNZ.
For international investors
A stable, English-speaking democracy with strong rule of law and intellectual property protection, consistently ranked among the least corrupt countries in the world in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index. Manufacturing already contributes around $23 billion to GDP, employs over 240,000 people, and makes up more than half of New Zealand's goods exports by value. A straightforward place to establish, own, and grow a company, in a time zone that bridges the United States and Asia.
The capital is New Zealand's traditional science city. The region hosts the headquarters and campuses of the country's public research organisations, including GNS Science, NIWA, and ESR, alongside the Malaghan Institute, the Robinson Research Institute, the Ferrier Research Institute, the MacDiarmid Institute's advanced materials network, and three universities. The region's engineering design sector generates over $619 million a year and its scientific research services over $306 million. All of that science, and no dedicated commercialisation facility. That is the gap PDIHQ fills.
New Zealand rebuilt its public science system in 2025, merging its Crown Research Institutes into focused public research organisations and committing $231 million over four years to the new NZ Institute for Advanced Technology. Its first investment: the Robinson Research Institute in Wellington. PDIHQ is the commercialisation infrastructure that turns this public research investment into companies, jobs, and exports.
New Zealand produces world-class science and engineering. What it has lacked is the place to turn that work into products and companies at home, instead of losing them offshore. Backing PDIHQ is backing that missing piece.
Who we are building this for
Late-phase start-ups, SMEs, and university spinoffs in deep tech, clean tech, biotech, and consumer product development. You are past the idea stage. You are building real products, and you need private offices, labs, and workshops without handing over your cap table. Long-term residency, not a twelve-week programme.
Express interestCentral and local government, institutional and private investors, corporate sponsors, and philanthropic funders who want measurable economic and social returns. The ask is $10.3 million in committed funding to break ground: lease underwriting, fit-out, and operational support through to self-sufficiency.
Request investor packWho is behind this
Mechanical engineer and founder of Pro-Dev, with over a decade leading product design and manufacturing programmes for inventors, start-ups, and established companies across New Zealand, Australia, and the United States. Sam has personally funded and led the development of PDIHQ since 2022, and will run the facility on site.
Pro-Dev is a product design and manufacturing consultancy, and one of the very few in New Zealand that walk clients all the way from concept through mass manufacturing to in-market support. That commercialisation playbook, proven over nearly ten years, is what PDIHQ applies to the STEM sector. PDIHQ is industry-led, and Pro-Dev will be in the building.
PDIHQ is governed by a five-member Advisory Board spanning property and compliance, governance and economics, and public sector economic development, with seats reserved for an industry expert and for iwi representation. Meet the board.
Working with
PDIHQ delivers the STEM product commercialisation innovation space initiative in the Wellington Regional Economic Development Plan.
The investor pack contains the full prospectus, the Infometrics study, and all four letters of support. It arrives in your inbox, with a personal follow-up from our founder.