User:Legin15/sandbox

Background
WaikatoLink Limited (Informally WaikatoLink) is the technology transfer office associated with the University of Waikato. WaikatoLink has been a fully operational company since 2002, WaikatoLink has progressed new ideas from inception to the market ready stage. This has lead to them gaining numerous licensing deals and creating more than 12 start-up companies and joint ventures

WaikatoLink’s office is situated at Waikato Innovation Park, This allows WaikatoLink to maintain their relationship with the University of Waikato.

Commercialisation
Commercialisation involves developing an project from an idea into a fully functional product or service. The commercialisation process is the series of steps that lead up to the introduction of a new product into the market.

Intellectual Property (IP) Management
Intellectual property management involves monitoring new patents that are filed to ensure they do not infringe on any patents held by WaikatoLink and its subsidiaries. This also allows WaikatoLink to know what is happening in the commercial space and to gain an understanding of what is being researched by other companies.

Technology Development
WaikatoLink aims to build new technologies into a market ready form. This involves working closely with the inventors and helping to gain funding from investors such as AngelLink and the government funded PreSeed Accelerator Fund (PSAF)

Building industry Linkage
WaikatoLink has been building industry linkages since it became fully operational in 2002. WaikatoLink retains strong ties with its industry partners and has built many on-going relationships; an example of these relationships is the recent partnership with MEA Mobile a local mobile app development business

Innovation Ecosystem
Over the years WaikatoLink has built up commercial expertise, venture development skills and global networks to external groups outside of the University of Waikato.

These groups make up WaikatoLink's Innovation Ecosystem. They are: The hothouse, AngelLink, VentureLink and KiwiNet

The Hothouse
The Hothouse employs students from the University of Waikato to perform market research and aid in the development if innovative technology.

AngelLink
AngelLink is a national network of investors established to facilitate investment into early stage ventures Angellink has an emphasis on life sciences engineering and ICT. Potential investee companies are screened and are taken through a stage gate decision process. This process aims to validate the suitability of their investment before they officially become investors. AngelLink is also a NZVIF SCIF Partner

VentureLink
VentureLink is a business support programme designed to accelerate the successful development of new and emerging companies.

KiwiNet
KiwiNet is a consortium of New Zealand universities that collaborate to maximise the commercial potential of public sector research. KiwiNet is an expansion of the successful Unicom consortium model. KiwiNet aims to have a combined research investment of over $500 Million (NZD). This collaboration aims to increase the flow of innovative products in the New Zealand economy.