Team

Built by people who have brought scientific products to market.

Our team and board bring deep experience in sequencing, cell analysis, instrumentation and pharma, now focused on functional screening.

Leadership

Dr Justin Hodgkiss
Dr Justin Hodgkiss
Chief Executive & Chief Scientific Officer, Founder

Left a university professorship to lead Advemto full-time. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2024, and winner of New Zealand's premier awards in chemical-science research and industrial chemistry. Co-director of the MacDiarmid Institute - the country's largest Centre of Research Excellence - for six years.

Dr Alex Barker
Dr Alex Barker
Chief Technology Officer

A photonics product leader. Four years as Senior Optical Engineer at Nireos in Milan, leading the team that brought the Triclops compact spectrometer from concept to market across optical design, electronics, software and manufacturing. Leads Advemto's R&D across optics, cell biology and reagent chemistry. PhD in Physics, Victoria University of Wellington.

Team

A small team in Wellington, New Zealand, with expertise across optics, engineering, chemistry, computational science and cell biology.

The Advemto team, Wellington
We hire often - get in touch

Board

Caroline Williams
Caroline Williams
Independent Chair. Independent director and angel investor active alongside New Zealand venture capital; experienced in building high performing teams, commercialising and scaling technology, transactions, risk and strategy and digital and technology infrastructure. Previously chaired Quantifi Photonics and Easy Crypto, each sold to international acquirers in 2025.
Dr Justin Hodgkiss
Dr Justin Hodgkiss
Founder Director. Chief Executive and Chief Scientific Officer. Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand and co-director of the MacDiarmid Institute for six years; left a university professorship to lead Advemto full-time.
Dr Shane Bowen
Dr Shane Bowen
Independent Director. Built the patterned-flowcell technology and manufacturing behind Illumina's NovaSeq and the $1,000 genome. Co-founded and led Palamedrix through its acquisition by SomaLogic, then held CTO and CRDO roles across SomaLogic and Standard BioTools. Now VP Technology Development at Atlas Data Storage. Contributor to more than 130 patents.
Dr John Sharpe
Dr John Sharpe
Independent Director. Physicist and technology executive with 25 years in cell analysis and biosensing, from ideation through productisation, regulatory positioning and global deployment. Chief Operating Officer of Cytonome. Inventor on more than 200 patents.
Rob Shaddock
Rob Shaddock
Investor Director, Movac. Former CTO and CEO with a track record in M&A, product development and manufacturing transformation; chief executive of two businesses, both acquired; fifteen years on the executive teams of multi-billion-dollar businesses. Engineering Science, University of Oxford.

Milestones

2026
Finalist, CYTO Innovation Technology Showcase.
2026
Core optical technology demonstrated.
2026
3 patent families filed.
2025
BioTools Innovator cohort - 31 of 400+ applicants.
2025
Seed round led by Movac.

Investors

Lead investorMovacNZ Growth Capital PartnersIcehouse VenturesEnterprise AngelsFlying Kiwi AngelsNuance Connected CapitalNZ Innovation BoosterSIP InnovationExponential Founders FundK1WIMatū