Marama Labs to showcase at TechCrunch Disrupt

Wellington-based deep-tech startup Marama Labs has been selected to participate in the first-ever Startup Battlefield 200 cohort at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in Silicon Valley.

The TechCrunch team chose a final class of 200 exemplary startups from thousands of applications worldwide to feature on the show floor in San Francisco on October 18-20. The global startup community event brings together 10,000 attendees, leagues of investors and hundreds of press and media outlets from across the globe.

Marama Labs develops scientific instrumentation and cloud software for rapid and cheap chemical analysis of liquids such as wine, pharmaceuticals and wastewater. Its flagship CloudSpec platform enables spectroscopy to be performed directly on cloudy samples – for chemical analysis and data analytics to improve production processes – which was not previously possible without extensive sample processing.

Winemakers use Marama Labs’ technologies to analyse wine to target and control the style of wines much earlier in the winemaking process, ensuring product consistency, improving quality and maximising consumer satisfaction.

Marama Labs CEO Dr Brendan Darby (pictured above (right) with Dr Matthias-Meyer (left)) says being selected as one of only 200 startups worldwide for Battlefield finalist is immense. Zuckerberg, Benioff, Musk, Kalanick, Mayer, Dorsey and many other startup stars have been on the Disrupt stage long before they were in the headlines.

“We cannot wait to showcase Marama Labs and share our vision with the world’s leading tech thought leaders at TechCrunch Disrupt. Our clients integrate our platform into their winery operations, capturing chemical data to support their production decisions – and it’s exciting to see CloudSpec’s rapid uptake as a standard tool in the industry. Recently we launched in the US, and we’ve already landed some of the biggest wineries in the US, if not the world, as customers. Being selected as a finalist for such an iconic event is a huge recognition for our team and the New Zealand deep tech industry,” he says.

CloudSpec, based on patented research from Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, has been used by some of New Zealand’s most iconic wineries and winemakers for multiple years. Earlier this year, CloudSpec was launched into the US wine market and is seeing adoption across California, Washington and Oregon – from ultra-premium boutique wineries in Napa Valley to very large-scale producers.

Marama Labs plans to target future markets where cloudy liquids pose a major problem for chemical analysis, such as pharmaceutical production and wastewater monitoring.

TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 200 finalists get to showcase their company at the conference exhibit, attend the masterclass series and network in person with investors. Of the 200 companies, 20 will be selected to pitch on the huge Disrupt stage in front of thousands for a chance to win $100,000 and the Disrupt Cup. Startup Battlefield alumni represent more than 900 companies with over 121 successful exits (IPOs or acquisitions), including Dropbox, CloudFlare and FitBit.