Success Stories

The ability to resource research and develop cutting edge technology has placed Wellington company Avenir Holdings in a position as an emerging world leader in its field.

Kim (Kimberley) Attwell, owner of Photo Higher (Avenir Holdings Ltd), says the company is one of only two worldwide that have developed a market niche in the field of aerial film and photography.

Kim is happy to credit much of his success to an early connection with the R&D Investment Managers at Grow Wellington. “The team at Grow Wellington has been selling our ideas behind the scenes and supporting crucial funding applications,” says Kim. “With their help we have been able to develop much faster than we would have by ourselves.”

Since starting Photo Higher from his Berhampore garage in his spare time in 2006, Avenir now employs nine staff members and operates out of a factory in Ngauranga.

Photo Higher designs unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and custom camera mounts (camera gimbals) to be used in all forms of aerial photography and filming all over the world. From 2012 the company’s revenue has grown to $2.2 million, with 99% of that from export.

Kim, a mechanical engineer by trade, began developing and building his first gimbal as a way  to fund his hobby of model aircraft flying. He prides himself on Photo Higher’s ability to constantly refine and improve the gimbals to keep pace with new opportunities that arise in their application. The gimbals remain in very high demand due to their ability to allow the capture of  very smooth, high quality aerial photographs and  footage, says Kim.

“I get huge satisfaction from seeing the different uses of our product developing around the world,” says Kim. Only last month he was contacted by anti-poaching interests in Botswana about the possibility of using Photo Higher’s latest lightweight systems in the war against wild animal poaching.

The company has been moving from strength to strength. Last year in Las Vegas the company launched its Emergency Recovery Parachute at the National Association of broadcasters with 17 distributors placing pre-orders. Kim has been able to commit much needed cash flow to finalising the development of gimbals for this project, as well as creating the new Halo direct drive gimbal series and the Halo 6 and Halo 8 carbon fibre multi rotors. The direct drive gimbals employ a new innovative technology enabling a film camera to keep pointing in a given direction (or in a desired movement) in real time. An operator can run with the camera on the gimbal and still get a steady shot.

“The funding we have received has helped us to access development much faster than we would have ourselves,” explains Kim. “We are able to put 8% of our total revenue into research and development and that’s huge.”

For the company’s future plans Kim is literally aiming for the stars. “My goal is to move into the aerospace industry and we want to be able to help the privatisation of the space industry, developing gimbal systems and robotics that can be used in the space.”