Auckland AI firm in liquidation after defaulting on $500k Callaghan loan – Tech Insider

In their initial report, the liquidators – Stephanie Jeffreys and Adele Hicks (both of Grant Thornton) say the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT “froze” Ambit’s business.

Warren said many customers now thought, correctly or not, that they could get equivalent products for free or cheaper – the same phenomenon that led to the collapse earlier this year of much larger New Zealand-founded customer service chatbot firm Soul Machines, owing $19.6m.

Ambit AI stopped trading in May 2024.

Its intellectual property (IP) was disposed of in two transactions.

Warren said he was frustrated that he and other shareholders had seen no money for either.

Chairman Mark Bregman told Tech Insider he gave a chunk of IP to a group of staff – in lieu of around $300,000 owed in salary and holiday entitlements – to help them set up their own AI consultancy, SupaHuman.

Another chunk of IP was sold to veterinary sector entrepreneur Stephen Merchant – an Ambit customer for his veterinary business – who formed Ambit AI Powered and took on the original Ambit’s three remaining staff.

Merchant told Tech Insider he had since tripled the size of the business, continuing to service Ambit’s existing clients like Southern Cross Travel Insurance and Webjet – and incorporating Ambit’s technology into his ClinicWise, an AI-powered virtual assistant designed specifically for veterinary clinics, which is generating global sales.

Merchant, a qualified vet, was co-founder, director and chief executive of New Zealand’s largest veterinary roll-up, Pet Doctors NZ, involving 33 clinics. In 2018, Queensland’s National Veterinary Care bought Pet Doctors in a deal worth A$27m ($32.98m), including A$4m in earnouts.

Merchant subsequently founded ClinicWise, an AI-powered digital front desk assistant for veterinary clinics that worked with another local product, ezyVet’s software for managing veterinary clinics and hospitals.

After the sale, Merchant pursued multiple projects, including a stint as a director and troubleshooter for Auckland student radio station bFM, forming IndieVets, a collective of community clinics and founding ClinicWise.

“We loved Ambit, and its team. Naturally, as a client, we were concerned when we heard Ambit was “looking for a new home”, and have since done our best to secure and develop the technology, the team and the remaining clients.

“Tim Warren remains a friend and a valued adviser to us, as one of NZ’s first AI pioneers and experts.”

Merchant did not want to say what he paid for Ambit’s IP.

Bregman could not give the amount either, but said after clearing liabilities, including money owed to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD), there weren’t sufficient funds to clear the Callaghan debt, let alone pay shareholders.

He said that as a shareholder himself, he was in the same lose-it-all boat as Warren, via his Quidnet Ventures, in which he is the sole shareholder. He said he had lost around $500,000.

Other Ambit AI (now renamed “Bambi Tech”) investors included Abinesh Krishnan and Josh Cromrie, the chief executive before Warren, who exited the day-to-day running of the firm in 2020.

Between them they held a 22% parcel, while Warren had 19%, Sir Stephen Tindall’s K1W1 4% and Crown agency NZ Growth Capital Partners’ Aspire Fund 2%.

Hicks said if there was any surplus of funds in a liquidation, Schedule 7 of the Companies Act put shareholders “at the bottom of the heap” behind staff, the IRD, secured creditors, unsecured creditors, legal costs and the cost of the liquidation process itself.

Can you sell the same intellectual property twice?

Bregman says Merchant got the IP created “before ChatGPT evaporated our market when it was released in November 2022″.

At the time, he and Warren clashed over product direction and fundraising strategy. Warren thought the business could be sold for around $10m, Bregman thought that was a pipe dream and wanted to pursue a VC raise. The board let Warren go.

An attempt was then made to adapt Ambit’s product for the new world of mass-market LLMs, but then the other shoe dropped with ChatGPT’s next major upgrade, Bregman says.

The firm threw in the towel, with the post-ChatGPT IP used to settle arrears with the staff who formed SupaHuman.

Merchant said he was initially concerned about some of the Ambit tech going to SupaHuman.

But he said SupaHuman had pursued its own niche (it markets itself as a provider of “AI solutions for complex, regulated industries”) while his own ClinicWise was white-labelling Ambit’s tech for its veterinary vertical. Specialising in a vertical was the way to survive and thrive when ChatGPT and its peers dominated general business, he said.

Jump before you’re pushed

Callaghan Innovation was defunded in last year’s budget, with its research role going to the new Institute for Advanced Research, due to become operational later this year, and its grant and loan responsibilities shifted to a team at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) late last year.

Bregman said he had negotiated a verbal agreement to pay a lower amount to Callaghan, before the MBIE transition.

But after the staffer he reached the pact with was axed, MBIE took a harder line on the loan.

It was shaping up for statutory action to force a liquidation via the High Court. It was cheaper and easier to go down the route of calling in the liquidators voluntarily via a special shareholder resolution.

Last-minute name change

The sale-and-purchase agreement that Merchant negotiated in 2024 included a requirement for the original Ambit to change its name, so it could go into liquidation under a different moniker, giving him clear sailing as he continued to use the brand name.

But in the event, it would take another two years and only happen at the last minute.

The liquidation of Ambit AI and its wholly owned subsidiary Ambit AI Nominees commenced on June 8, according to the Government Gazette.

The liquidators’ initial report, dated June 12, notes Ambit AI changed its name to Bambi Tech on June 10. Ambit AI Nominees changed its name to Bambi Tech Nominees on the same day.

Hicks told Tech Insider that she had yet to get logins to the collapsed companies’ accounts. The initial report only lists one liability – the Callaghan debt (after MBIE proactively came forward) – and one asset: $200,000 in cash in the bank.

Bambi in the headlights

“Bambi Tech operated as a business developing and commercialising conversational artificial intelligence technology for over seven years in New Zealand,” the liquidators’ initial report says.

“Following OpenAI’s 2022 announcement of ChatGPT, the market for Bambi Tech’s products was effectively frozen.

“Bambi Tech attempted to pivot to a new model, and in mid-2024, as a result of an internal strategic decision, Bambi Tech’s assets exclusively related to the business operations were sold, and certain specified liabilities were transferred to a separate entity.”

67 loan recipients in liquidation

Callaghan was best known for its direct grants, which did not have to be repaid. In Budget 2020, the then Labour-led Government provided $150m for loans to start-ups – at 3% over 10 years – for companies whose “R&D programme has been negatively impacted by Covid-19″.

Loans – which now sit on MBIE’s books – were issued by Callaghan between July 2020 and June 2021.

As of June 8 this year, a total of 456 companies were provided with loans, with the expectation of the money being repaid within 10 years.

So far, 50 companies have paid back their loans in full and 67 businesses that received these loans have gone into liquidation, MBIE head of innovation and business capability Diana Loughnan told Tech Insider.

Late last year, when Callaghan moved to liquidate ConnectX Holdings over a $451,000 outstanding loan, a Callaghan spokesman said nothing should be read into an uptick in statutory action, calling it ”all business-as-usual work”.

Now, there’s a new sheriff in town.

“Since taking over responsibility from Callaghan Innovation [in November 2025], MBIE has a clearer view and is strengthening how the remaining loans are managed,” Loughnan said.

“This includes putting in place a more robust debt management framework, clearer accountability for monitoring and escalation, and a more systematic approach to identifying risks, setting impairment provisions, and recovering funds.

“These improvements will help ensure the ministry actively manages risks and secures value for money as the loan portfolio is paid down. In the meantime, borrowers are expected to continue repaying their loans, with interest, in line with their original agreements.”

An Official Information Act request, which is in process, was required for current outstanding loan and default data.

Callaghan’s 2025 annual report said it had issued $148.97m in loans.

As of June 30, 2025, $32.86m in principal had been repaid, leaving the size of its active loan portfolio at $116.2m.

Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.