What Starship does

Starship Child Health is New Zealand's national children's hospital and a service operated by Auckland District Health Board (Te Toka Tumai) within Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora, headquartered at Park Road, Grafton, Auckland. It delivers free tertiary paediatric healthcare to children and families across New Zealand, accepting referrals from all district health boards and transporting patients via a 24/7 National Air Ambulance service. Its core clinical offerings include the Starship Trauma Service (the country's only dedicated Paediatric Trauma Service), the Starship Blood and Cancer Centre (NZ's largest children's cancer centre), neonatal and paediatric intensive care, and a Starship Clinical Research programme running more than 150 active studies supported by REDCap and EDGE platforms.

Starship's product portfolio also extends into national prevention and research infrastructure outside the hospital walls. Safekids Aotearoa provides child injury prevention education and the Whare Kahikā home safety mobile app, while Power to Protect (Tau Ai Te Ira) delivers an abusive head trauma prevention programme co-designed with Māori cultural practices and partnered with Plunket, Healthline, and Lifeline. The Starship Foundation functions as the charitable fundraising arm, generating revenue from individual donations, corporate partnerships, workplace giving, bequests, and merchandise collaborations such as the long-running Ruby Seeto tea-towel range with Wallace Cotton. Strategic research partnerships with the University of Auckland, the Health Research Council, and the Neurological Foundation of New Zealand support studies including TREAT-SC, MaPINO, SCIENCE, and respiratory health research in children with cerebral palsy.

The business model is publicly funded at point of care: healthcare services are free to patients and resourced through New Zealand government health allocations, while the Foundation layers supplementary philanthropic income on top. Customers in the traditional commercial sense do not exist; beneficiaries are children and families (primary), paediatric health professionals (secondary), and donors and supporters (philanthropic). Data assets, regulatory status as the sole national paediatric tertiary provider, and a deep network of clinical and academic partnerships form the structural backbone of the operation.

Name

Starship

Legal name

Starship Child Health (Auckland District Health Board)

Website

https://starship.org.nz

Company type

Private

Founded year

1992

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Starship Child Health is New Zealand's national children's hospital, operated by Auckland District Health Board, providing free tertiary paediatric care, trauma services, cancer treatment, and clinical research to children and families across the country.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Auckland

HQ country

New Zealand

HQ region

Oceania

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Government Healthcare Funding: Core healthcare services funded by the New Zealand government through public health system
2. Charitable Donations: Individual donations through the Starship Foundation to support equipment, research, and patient care programs
3. Corporate Partnerships: Business partnerships and corporate donations through the Foundation's partnership programme
4. Fundraising Events: Community fundraising activities, workplace fundraising, school fundraising, and events like the Barfoot & Thompson Auckland Marathon
5. Bequests: Legacy giving through wills and estate planning

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Starship Child Health delivers comprehensive paediatric healthcare services to New Zealand children from birth through adolescence, including emergency treatment, inpatient and outpatient care, surgical procedures, neonatal intensive care, cancer treatment, and trauma services. It operates the country's only dedicated Paediatric Trauma Service and Paediatric Intensive Care Unit, supported by a National Air Ambulance Service and a Clinical Research programme running 150+ studies. Supplementary programmes include the Starship Foundation (charitable fundraising), Safekids Aotearoa (child injury prevention), Power to Protect/Tau Ai Te Ira (shaken baby syndrome prevention), and the New Zealand Cerebral Palsy Register.

Product overview

Starship Child Health is New Zealand's first and foremost dedicated children's hospital and major teaching facility, operating as a unified health service with multiple interconnected programmes. The core clinical services include Starship Trauma Service (the only dedicated Paediatric Trauma Service in NZ), Starship Blood and Cancer Centre, Starship Clinical Research programme (150+ studies), and Starship Foundation (fundraising arm). These are supported by digital platforms including Safekids Aotearoa (child injury prevention with the Whare Kahikā app), Power to Protect (shaken baby syndrome prevention), and research registries like the NZ Cerebral Palsy Register. The organisation also provides clinical guidelines, teaching resources, and research database tools (REDCap, EDGE) for health professionals.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Starship Trauma Service

Quantifiable outcome

• Annual incidence of abusive head trauma in NZ is approximately 30/100,000 infants under 1 year
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Safekids AotearoacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerStarship hosts Safekids Aotearoa, which provides practical advice based on international research, local knowledge and mātauranga to help keep children safe from serious injuries like falls, drowning and road incidents. Safekids maintains a comprehensive resource catalogue and provides child injury prevention education throughout New Zealand.
• Power to Protect (Tau Ai Te Ira)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerA national programme protecting mokopuna from the lasting effects of shaken baby syndrome/abusive head trauma. The programme incorporates Māori knowledge and practices including karakia, karanga, oriori, and haka. Partners include Plunket, Healthline, Lifeline, and other support organisations.
• Paediatric Society of New ZealandcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerStarship works in partnership with the Paediatric Society of NZ to progress the health and wellbeing of tamariki throughout Aotearoa through the NZ Child and Youth Clinical Networks.
• National Child Cancer NetworkcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerStarship Blood and Cancer Centre participates in the National Child Cancer Network, providing access to working groups and professional development opportunities across New Zealand's children's cancer services.
• Wallace CottonminorGTM or Marketing PartnerE-commerce partner selling Ruby Seeto-designed tea towels and washcloth sets, with a portion of each sale donated to the Starship Foundation to support paediatric oncology projects.
• University of AucklandcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic partner supporting clinical research, with researchers from the University involved in multiple Starship research programmes including cerebral palsy research, trauma studies, and clinical trials.
• Ruby SeetominorGTM or Marketing PartnerLong-term Starship supporter who has designed tea towels for 17 years, raising over $800,000 for Starship Foundation through Wallace Cotton partnership.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Regional players

• Women's and Children's Health Network (Adelaide): South Australian public health network focused on women's and children's services, including the Women's and Children's Hospital. Comparable as a publicly funded pediatric specialty provider with research and prevention programs.
• Children's Health Ireland: Ireland's national pediatric healthcare provider operating pediatric hospitals and urgent care centres under the public system. Comparable to Starship in providing nationally coordinated pediatric specialty care with research and teaching functions.
• Sydney Children's Hospitals Network: Network of children's hospitals in New South Wales operating under the public health system. Comparable as a public pediatric provider with national referral functions, research output, and a charitable foundation structure analogous to Starship's.

Direct peers

• Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children: UK's premier dedicated children's hospital with national referral role and major pediatric research portfolio. Comparable to Starship as a national pediatric tertiary/quaternary centre with strong fundraising and academic partnerships.
• Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne: Australia's largest dedicated children's hospital, providing the full range of pediatric specialty, trauma, and research services. Directly comparable as a national-level standalone children's hospital with research and charitable foundation arms.

Others

• Paediatric Society of New Zealand: Professional society that partners with Starship on the NZ Child and Youth Clinical Networks. Comparable as a pediatric ecosystem partner and the professional body that shares clinical guideline and training functions with Starship.
• Starship Foundation: The charitable fundraising arm of Starship Child Health. Included to highlight that it is an internal entity (subsidiary) of Starship rather than a separate peer; useful as a comparable fundraising-model peer to other hospital foundations such as the Royal Children's Hospital Foundation.
• Safekids Worldwide (Safe Kids Worldwide): Global injury prevention network; Safekids Aotearoa (hosted by Starship) is the New Zealand affiliate. Comparable as the umbrella injury-prevention model for the Safekids Aotearoa programme delivered by Starship.

Broad incumbents

• Canterbury District Health Board (Christchurch Hospital): A major New Zealand public hospital that provides some pediatric services and is one of the referring sites to Starship. Comparable as a fellow public hospital system within New Zealand's Te Whatu Ora structure.
• Auckland City Hospital (Te Toka Tumai): The parent adult hospital operated by the same Auckland District Health Board that runs Starship. Comparable as the broader public hospital umbrella organisation within which Starship sits, sharing governance, IT, and back-office functions.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCBHhXuQ8fNvEVFAZWbWRjOw
• Xx.com/StarshipFDN
• Facebookfacebook.com/starshipfoundation

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles19 records

Subsidiaries3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Starship