Feijoa has won the Audience Choice award at the Kiwibank Start Up Pitch Breakfast during the FinTechNZ Hui in Wellington, beating other early-stage firms in a showcase of New Zealand’s fintech sector.
The event featured five startups from the Creative HQ Fintech Lab 2026 accelerator cohort. A judging panel named another cohort member, Hello Cashflow, as a Best Pitch winner, while the audience vote went to Feijoa.
Feijoa offers a round-up service linked to card and account spending. It rounds purchases up to the nearest dollar and allocates the spare change to one or more nominated KiwiSaver accounts. The approach is positioned as a way to build savings through small, regular contributions.
Co-founder Mark White-Robinson said the audience response mattered because it came from people active in the sector.
“Pitching to a room of people who are actively invested in the future of fintech and having them back what we’re doing is incredibly affirming,” said White-Robinson.
He said the result aligned with what the business has heard from consumers about low-friction saving tools.
“The vote tells us that the industry recognises what we’ve been hearing from everyday Kiwis – that small, automated savings are a genuinely powerful idea that can shift their financial future,” White-Robinson said.
KiwiSaver gap
The pitch focused on KiwiSaver participation and contribution levels. Feijoa argues many members miss out on annual government contributions because they do not contribute enough over the year, putting the figure at close to 1 million people. It highlights self-employed workers, part-timers, and those without PAYE deductions as groups that can find it harder to contribute consistently.
Feijoa says its users are collectively on track to add an extra $1.6 million to KiwiSaver balances this year through round-ups. It projects that the total could be more than $60 million by the time users retire, based on its forecast assumptions.
The app is designed to work across KiwiSaver schemes rather than tie users to a single provider. That reflects how KiwiSaver is organised in New Zealand, where multiple providers compete for members while the government sets the broader policy settings.
Open finance link
Feijoa connects to a customer’s bank through Akahu, an open finance platform used by a range of local fintech services. It says it does not access a user’s KiwiSaver account directly, and does not hold or manage KiwiSaver funds.
The business is registered as a financial services provider and is a member of the Financial Disputes Resolution Service. It is also a licensed user of the KiwiSaver trademark.
Feijoa intends to introduce rewards and incentives from partners once they are onboarded. It has not provided details on which partners it is in discussions with or how any incentives would be funded.
Accelerator pipeline
Feijoa is part of Creative HQ’s Fintech Lab 2026 cohort, which made up the pitch breakfast line-up. The programme has been an on-ramp for several high-profile local firms. Creative HQ cites Sharesies and Hnry among its alumni, and says companies from the programme have collectively raised more than $300 million.
White-Robinson said the cohort has shaped Feijoa’s development and growth plans.
“We built Feijoa to make saving happen in the background of everyday life,” he said.
He also noted that the accelerator environment had influenced execution and pace.
“Being part of the Fintech Lab 2026 cohort has accelerated our ability to do that at scale, and sitting alongside Aotearoa’s most exciting fintech founders makes us even more determined to move fast,” White-Robinson said.
The Audience Choice win gives Feijoa a visibility boost among founders, investors, and financial services executives at the FinTechNZ Hui as it continues to build distribution partnerships and expand its KiwiSaver user base.