Angel Awards 2025 Announced Simon Swallow and Tapi Limited recognised – Puawaitanga Award
At its 2025 summit at Bangor Farm just outside Christchurch today, Angel Association New Zealand announced the winners of the Puawaitanga Award – recognising founders and investor directors who exemplify what can be achieved when committed people draw on their collective skills and experience – and the Kotahaitanga Award – recognising people in the angel community who have made an outstanding contribution to the industry.
The Puawaitanga Award has been presented to Tapi Limited CEO Tal Meser and his team and Wellington-based angel investor Simon Swallow, who has been the lead investor and chair of the angel syndicated startup.
Tapi Limited is a property maintenance platform primarily focused on helping property managers in New Zealand and Australia streamline their maintenance processes by providing a centralised system for tracking repairs, managing tenant requests, coordinating with contractors, and ensuring smooth communication between landlords, tenants, and service providers; essentially aiming to make property maintenance more efficient and user-friendly for all parties involved.
Simon has been a significant contributor to the Wellington angel investor ecosystem over the last decade+, having invested in and served on the boards of successfully exited companies Publons and CreditorWatch Collect (formerly DebtorDaddy). He was the initial lead investor and chairperson of Tapi in 2017 and has continued to serve on the board through numerous capital raises including participation across the country (with Icehouse Ventures, Canterbury Angels, MIG Angels, and numerous non-club affiliated angel groups). He has supported their international growth strategy, first into Australia and through ups and downs.
Tapi are now a fast-growing, sustainable SaaS business with a clearly defined and well-articulated pathway to exit, including having led an extensive process to agree and align on the target outcome across the founders, executive team and investors.
In acknowledging the award, Angel Association Chief Executive, Bridget Unsworth said Tal and his co-founders together with Simon clearly demonstrate that scaling an early stage company is always a team effort and that investor-founder alignment, mutual support, and strong governance are essential to strengthening a startup’s prospects for success.
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For more information, please contact Bridget Unsworth, CEO Angel Association
mob: 021 555 563 or email: [email protected]
The Angel Association of New Zealand (AANZ)
The Angel Association is an organisation that aims to increase the quantity, quality, and success of angel investments in New Zealand and in doing so create a greater pool of capital for innovative start-up companies. It was established in 2008 to bring together New Zealand angels and early-stage funds. AANZ currently has 50+ members representing over 900 individual angels associated with New Zealand’s key angel networks and funds. AANZ works closely with NZTE (New Zealand Trade and Enterprise), NZ Growth Capital Partners and Callaghan Innovation and a number of private sector partners including Jarden, PWC, Avid Legal, KiwiNet, Uniservices, Amazon Web Services and BNZ. For more, please visit: www.angelassociation.co.nz
The Puawaitanga Award recognises the founder and investor-director who best exemplifies what can be achieved when committed people draw on their collective skills and experience. This award celebrates an angel-backed venture achieving world class success. This venture has excellent governance, a compelling business proposition and a well-defined strategy for exponential returns.
Puawaitanga – ‘best return on integrated goals’.