Drumbeat's NZ$2 million seed: Icehouse Ventures backs Auckland PR tech

Auckland-based Drumbeat, a PR and communications technology startup that helps founders find, tell and measure their stories, has raised NZ$2 million (A$1.64m) in Seed funding — a round pitched at dragging PR out of the 1990s.

Icehouse Ventures led the raise, with support from Brand Fund. Two Australian marketers are also on the cap table: Adam Ferrier of creative agency Thinkerbell and Henry Innis of Mutinex.

The money will go toward scaling Drumbeat's proprietary "awareness-building system," which bundles media relations management, content generation, campaign tracking and media clipping tools into a single platform. The company also plans to expand in Australia and the United States.

Drumbeat launched in March 2026 and has already signed more than 50 customers across New Zealand, Australia, the UK and the US. The business is serviced by a team of eight.

The founding team numbers six: Fallon Savery, Mimi O'Callaghan, Neha Bhardwaj, Barney Chunn, Jessie Gilchrist and Aaron Croft.

The raise places Drumbeat in a crowded communications and marketing software market, but its founders are betting that the combination of media relations, content production and measurement in one system is the differentiator — rather than the point-solution tools that typically split those functions across separate contracts. The inclusion of Ferrier and Innis, both well-known figures in the Australian marketing scene, gives the startup local credibility as it pushes across the Tasman and into the US.

For Icehouse Ventures, the deal is another early-stage bet on New Zealand software founders building for offshore markets from day one — Drumbeat's customer base is already spread across four countries despite being only months old.