Taking on a Global Health Crisis with AI
Angelica Lawson - Ceratec Health
Auckland
Angelica Lawson is the founder of Ceratec Health, a health-tech startup on a mission to tackle one of the world’s biggest silent epidemics: diabetes. Globally, more than 570 million people live with undiagnosed pre-diabetes and diabetes, and Angelica believes her team has the technology to change that.
With just $25,000 NZD in initial funding, Ceratec Health has already developed three AI-powered diabetes technologies, completed a successful national beta trial, and established an international sales pipeline designed to early identify diabetes and prevent diabetes-related accidents, injuries, and productivity losses. For Angelica, the mission is clear: “Keep talking to customers and make sure that you're building something people want.”
A founder’s journey
Angelica’s path to founding Ceratec Health wasn’t straightforward. She explains that creating novel technology while validating a new market opportunity required her to learn quickly and remain agile, resulting in the avoidance of common pitfalls.
Her early months were full of trial, validation, and iteration. Like many first-time founders, she admits that investment and scaling from 0 to 1 felt like a foreign language. That changed as she began tapping into New Zealand’s startup ecosystem where she was later granted Grand Winner of the National HealthTech Startup Challenge.
Through Startup Aotearoa, she was also given access to coaches and mentors who helped her refine her strategy and gain confidence. This was complemented by industry events, dinners, and organisations that collectively allowed her to deepen her expertise and connections.
“By tapping into New Zealand’s startup support system, I was able to dissect what both enterprise customers and investors are looking for - allowing me to align accordingly,” she says. “That kind of insight is gold!”
Building on early wins
Despite the lean funding, Angelica and her team moved quickly from concept to proof of concept. The national beta trial was a milestone that validated both the technology and the problem it was designed to solve.
Still, Angelica knows technology alone won’t create impact. She’s become increasingly focused on customer discovery and ensuring Ceratec Health isn’t just producing clever software, but a solution that generations will use.
This thinking - solution before product - has been reinforced at every stage of her journey.
Electrify Aotearoa: expanding the toolkit
When Angelica attended Electrify Aotearoa, she walked into a room of more than 500 people she barely knew - and left with not just connections, but clarity.
The workshops proved especially impactful, with Sarah Park and Kathleen Lucere from Even Capital breaking down the differences between Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists, giving her, as she puts it, “a clear idea of the operational differences, what this means as a founder, and what I can work towards.”
Equally transformative was Simon Pound’s brand storytelling session, which shifted her approach to marketing: “Creating a brand that strategically aligns with both the problem and solution is sometimes pushed aside during the early days. Simon’s workshop made the marketing logic and workflow digestible for founders who already have so much on their plate.”
But beyond the tools and insights, the real breakthrough for Angelica was the community. “People were so open to getting to know you and what you’re doing and offering a hand if they can,” she reflects. Within a week of the event, she was already reconnecting with fellow attendees at other startup gatherings, turning introductions into a genuine support network. “It really strengthened my relationship with a lot of people. I left with a lot more connections,” she says. These weren’t just surface-level interactions - they’ve already led to investor meetings and collaborative opportunities, giving her the confidence to keep pushing Ceratec Health forward.
Looking ahead
Angelica knows hardware and health-tech development is a marathon, not a sprint. But with her proof of concept validated, growing investor interest, and a stronger support network than ever, she’s ready to scale.
Her goal is nothing less than tackling one of the world’s most widespread and costly health crises. And while the road ahead will be long, Angelica’s journey so far shows what’s possible when a determined founder plugs into the right community and keeps customer needs at the centre.
“Keep talking to those customers and keep making sure that you're building something people want.”
Learn more about Ceratec Health or connect with Angelica via LinkedIn.
Thank you to the Ministry for Women for supporting Angelica's Journey.
Next story: Laura Thompson - āhei
Invercargill
From Paralympic track to Edtech innovation, Laura Thompson is redefining inclusion in schools with āhei — a platform that embeds accessibility directly into mainstream teaching tools. By pivoting from specialised disability software to a solution every teacher wants to use, she’s making inclusive education a natural part of the classroom.
If you’re looking to embark on your own startup journey, check out these programmes to see if they are right for you:
Startup Aotearoa - free one-to-one coaching for early-stage founders.
Founder Catalyst - a nine-month founder capability building programme.