At GridAKL, Anew:
- found a supportive cohort of fellow founders and gained visibility through local connections, industry groups and visiting international delegations
- benefitted from its co-working space at GridAKL, enabling the business to move out of the spare room at home
- connected with Soul Capital, and the impact of the investor’s support has enabled Anew to scale-up to its next stage of growth to make its plant-based bottles available in more than 1,000 outlets globally.
When Anew founder Jayden Klinac was invited to join Auckland Council innovation hub GridAKL in Wynyard Quarter in 2019, he was building a company with a clear mission: to provide a convenient, low impact bottle of water as an alternative to single-use bottles made from fossil fuels and finite resources.
The startup’s alkaline-water-filled, plant-based bottles are now sold online and at more than 500 outlets across New Zealand and more than 440 stockists in the United States. Anew’s growth has also seen its bottles stocked in Hong Kong and Singapore, with 250 new locations added across Australia this month alone, including in BP stations.
In fact, it was at a BP station where the original idea sparked; Jayden was caught without his water bottle and realised every purchasing option for water, involved a compromise between personal health and sustainability.
Through trial and error, Jayden created a water bottle made entirely from plant-based materials, carbon negative in production, microplastic free, BPA free, lightweight and durable enough to be dishwasher safe. Incredibly, the oil-based-plastic-free bottle can also be recycled alongside standard streams for plastic number 2.
At Auckland’s Laneway festival in February, Anew’s limited-edition Laneway water bottles sold out for the third year in a row, showing just how strong consumer demand is for eco-friendly choices.
“Food packaging and drink containers make up the bulk of waste produced by the average festival goer and are a significant part of an event’s carbon footprint,” says Jayden.
“We ran free refill stations on-site at Laneway, reducing multiple purchases. And because Anew bottles are reusable, most people take them home - extending the impact well beyond the event itself. It is an easy choice for venues and events to be single-use bottle free and still sell water.”
By switching traditional bottled water to Anew, Laneway sequestered and avoided 1,899 kg of CO₂ in a single day.
“That's with 100 per cent of fossil fuels removed from the bottled water offering, replaced by our plant-based, renewable and reusable bottles. We even had people turning up with their 2025 Laneway limited edition bottle from the year before - still going,” says Jayden.
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown said backing practical innovation is exactly what Auckland should be focused on.
“Anew is a great example of what GridAKL is designed to do, which is help smart founders turn good ideas into businesses that scale.
“It’s stories like this that show why it’s important to have the Auckland Innovation and Technology Alliance, to bring people with great ideas together.
“We know there are too many plastic bottles ending up in our oceans and waterways and as a trustee of Sea Cleaners I know all about that.
“This is a Kiwi company solving a real environmental problem, creating economic value and taking Auckland innovation to the world.
“When we back founders with the right connections, capital and networks, we get results like this.”
Run by Auckland Council’s Economic Development Office, GridAKL, which is located in the John Lysaght building at the Wynyard Quarter, is a place to spark ideas and provide opportunities for Auckland’s startup founders, with shared workspaces, regular industry events, workshops and programmes, including visibility to wider networks and visiting international delegations.
GridAKL helps connect startup founders with investors. Since it opened in 2015, GridAKL has fostered innovation and economic growth, contributing $424 million annually to Auckland’s GDP.
GridAKL was where Anew was introduced to impact investor Soul Capital, whose investment was key in the company’s growth.
“Being based at GridAKL connected us to people and opportunities we wouldn’t have accessed working in isolation. It’s given us a central platform, introductions to investors, and access to an ecosystem that supported our development through both challenges and expansion,” says Jayden.
Soul Capital made an equity investment in Anew through seed funding in April 2022 and bridge funding in November 2024 through its Te Pae ki te Rangi fund.
Despite losing 90 per cent of its revenue during the COVID 19 pandemic, Anew continued to scale operations from the security of its GridAKL base. The company’s bottled water is also stocked at major Auckland Council venues, including the Aotea Centre and The Civic.
Anew’s success story is one of many at GridAKL, and a source of pride for the General Manager of the Economic Development Office, Pam Ford.
“We couldn’t be prouder of Anew’s growth.
“GridAKL has now been open for 11 years as a centre for innovation and support for founders, whose successes are wins for Auckland. In October this year, we will host the second Auckland Startup Week at GridAKL, which will further cement Auckland’s reputation as an innovation leader in the Asia-Pacific region."