Barney Chunn
CEO & Co-founderPreviously COO and co-founder of CONQA, the construction tech company that grew from a New Zealand startup into a global business.
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Press kit
Drumbeat
The PR & comms platform for high-growth companies.
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Key facts
Drumbeat at a glance
- Founded
- [Founding year]
- HQ
- Auckland, New Zealand
- Focus
- PR and comms for high-growth companies
- Launched
- March 2026
50+customers
$2MNZD seed round
4markets: NZ, Australia, UK, USA
8people on the team
Company overview
What Drumbeat does
Drumbeat is a PR and comms platform that helps high-growth companies find, tell and measure their stories. It turns business activity - product updates, hires, milestones and mission-led stories - into ongoing media and content opportunities, giving growth-stage companies a repeatable, measurable alternative to the traditional agency retainer.
“Storytelling is the oldest way humans have connected with each other - what’s changed is the technology.”
Barney Chunn, CEO & Co-founder
01Find
Fresh angles from the day’s news, ranked against each customer’s business.
02Share
Stories matched across mainstream, trade and emerging media, in four markets.
03Track
Every pitch to placement, in reporting you can put in front of a board.
The model
How Drumbeat works
Hands-on PR expertise alongside a product that keeps getting smarter - so customers build confidence, land stories, and get more out of Drumbeat over time.
Onboard
We lead the way
Each account is built around the brand before day one, with storylines and media targets ready to explore.
Collaborate
We build it together
The team helps shape, write, match and pitch the first stories, so customers see what great looks like.
Support
They lead, we stay alongside
Customers run Drumbeat. The team sense-checks stories and matches, and advises when needed.
Leadership
The people behind Drumbeat
Fallon Savery
Chief Revenue Officer & Co-founderSenior revenue and go-to-market leadership roles across Vend, Auror and most recently Timely/EverWell as SVP of Revenue, helping technology companies scale into global markets.
Dr. Aaron Croft
Chief Product Officer & Co-founderA PhD in engineering from the University of Auckland, then product roles at Xero and Formus Labs, and Head of Product at Hectre. Leads product, design and engineering at Drumbeat.
Key people
Governance and support
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Simon Pound
ChairPartner at New+Improved Ventures, the venture studio behind Tracksuit, Ideally and Drumbeat.
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[Name]
[Title][1-2 line bio.]
The origin story
How it started
Three operators who kept watching good companies stay invisible - and built the system they wished they’d had.
Drumbeat is the fourth company built out of venture studio New+Improved Ventures, the team behind Tracksuit and Ideally. Co-founders Barney Chunn, Fallon Savery and Dr. Aaron Croft had each spent years inside high-growth companies with good stories that never reached the market.
Drumbeat launched in March 2026 to give growing companies the media relationships, the tools and the cadence to tell those stories consistently.
“The first company I started had a genuinely great story to tell - but we never connected that to how we could grow the business. Nobody knew who we were, so we ended up explaining our company to every investor and every customer, in every single sales meeting, for a decade.”
Barney Chunn, CEO & Co-founder
The problem we’re solving
Most great stories never get told
PR was built for a different era
Traditional PR was priced for enterprise budgets, structured around one-off announcements, and disconnected from the people who actually know the business.
AI changed how companies get found
AI now decides who gets surfaced based on what independent sources say about a company - not what the company says about itself.
“PR is more important than ever, but too much of the industry still operates the way it did in the 90s. Drumbeat has brought that into the modern era.”
Jack McQuire, Partner, Icehouse Ventures
Key points
Why this is a story
A studio-built startup with a proven team, a fast start, and a market being rewritten by AI.
01
Pedigree
The fourth company out of New+Improved Ventures, the studio behind Tracksuit and Ideally.
02
Founders who lived it
Three operators who scaled CONQA, Timely and Hectre - and felt the cost of staying invisible.
03
A fast start
More than 50 customers in four markets within six months of launch.
04
AI raises the stakes
As AI shapes how people discover companies, earned media - not brand-owned content - drives visibility.
05
The retainer is breaking
A repeatable, measurable alternative to the traditional agency retainer.
06
Global from day one
Customer coverage across NZ, Australia, the UK, the US, Singapore and Hong Kong.
Traction & progress
Early traction
50+ customers since the March 2026 launch, including Andfoods, Re-Leased, Levno and Factor.
Names that land
Backed by Icehouse Ventures and Brand Fund, with support from Adam Ferrier (Thinkerbell) and Henry Innis (Mutinex).
As featured in
[Outlets that have covered Drumbeat]
Portfolio
What we’ve built
The Drumbeat platform
PR & comms platformMedia relations management, content generation, campaign tracking and media clipping, in one awareness-building system.
$2M NZD seed · Co-founders Barney Chunn, Fallon Savery and Dr. Aaron Croft
See how it works →
Timeline
Key milestones
- Mar 2026
Launch
Drumbeat launches, the fourth company out of New+Improved Ventures.
- 2026
50+ customers in four markets
Customers across New Zealand, Australia, the UK and the US, with coverage landing in Singapore and Hong Kong too.
- Sep 2026
$2M NZD seed round
Led by Icehouse Ventures, with support from Brand Fund.
- Next
Australia and the US
The raise funds expansion into Australia and the United States, and scales the platform.
Available for comment
Spokespeople & expertise
Reach out for interviews, commentary, or expert perspectives on PR, storytelling, AI and building global startups from New Zealand.
Filter by topic
In the press
Coverage & media
Drumbeat raises $2M NZD
The seed round announcement, with quotes from the founders, Icehouse Ventures and Andfoods.
Read the announcement →-
Drumbeat newsroom · 1 Sep 2026
Drumbeat raises $2M NZD to help high-growth companies build their brand through storytelling
Auckland-based technology startup replaces the agency retainer model with a tech-enabled platform for consistent, measurable PR.
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[Outlet] · [Date]
[Headline]
[Three-line excerpt from the article.]
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[Outlet] · [Date]
[Headline]
[Three-line excerpt from the article.]
Market context & what’s ahead
Key facts and what’s in the works
Get found by AI
84%
of AI citations come from independent media coverage. 0.3% come from paid.
Relevance has a shelf life
~50%
drop in visibility for each year content ages.
What’s next
Australia and the US
The seed round funds expansion into both markets, and scales the platform.
Pitching is broken
86%
of journalists immediately reject a pitch that isn’t aligned with their beat.
Cision, State of the Media 2025
Customers
Who uses what we build
High-growth companies across New Zealand, Australia, the UK and the US, including Andfoods, Re-Leased, Levno and Factor.
“As we grow into new markets, getting our story in front of the right media in each one used to mean managing multiple agency relationships. Drumbeat has let us do that from one platform, and we’ve landed coverage in APAC markets that are typically challenging to crack.”
Alex Devereux, CEO, Andfoods
“You can have an incredible product and a great sales team, but if nobody knows who you are, you’re starting every conversation from zero.”
Fallon Savery, Chief Revenue Officer & Co-founder
Investors & backers
Who’s behind us
Icehouse Ventures
VC · Seed leadBrand Fund
InvestorAdam Ferrier
Backer · ThinkerbellHenry Innis
Backer · Mutinex
Key partners
Our ecosystem
New+Improved Ventures
The venture studio that built Drumbeat - its fourth company.
Tracksuit
Sister company from the same studio, for brand tracking.
Ideally
Sister company from the same studio, for market research.
Media assets
Logos, imagery & downloads
Story angles
Suggested storylines for media
Four ways into the Drumbeat story. Open an angle for the hook, the story, the proof points and why it matters now.
Angle 01
The end of the agency retainer
Headline hook
Why high-growth companies are bringing PR in-house.
The story
Traditional PR was priced for enterprise budgets and built around one-off announcements. Drumbeat gives growth-stage teams the media relationships, tools and cadence to run PR themselves - consistently and measurably.
Proof points
- 50+ customers since the March 2026 launch
- Every story tracked from pitch to placement
- Andfoods landed APAC coverage from one platform instead of multiple agencies
The why
Awareness comes from consistency, not one big announcement a year - and most companies can’t afford that consistency on a retainer.
Angle 02
AI is rewriting how companies get found
Headline hook
In the age of AI search, earned media matters more than ever.
The story
AI is now how buyers discover and evaluate companies, and it surfaces them based on what independent sources say - not what companies say about themselves.
Proof points
- 84% of AI citations come from independent media coverage; 0.3% from paid
- ~50% drop in visibility for each year content ages
The why
Being covered once isn’t enough: AI favours what’s fresh, relevant and authoritative, so companies need a steady drumbeat of stories.
Angle 03
The studio behind Tracksuit goes again
Headline hook
New+Improved Ventures’ fourth company takes on PR.
The story
After Tracksuit (brand tracking) and Ideally (market research), the studio has built Drumbeat to bring PR and comms strategy and media relationships in-house for high-growth companies.
Proof points
- $2M NZD seed led by Icehouse Ventures, with Brand Fund
- Founders from CONQA, Timely/EverWell and Hectre
- Chaired by Simon Pound, Partner at New+Improved Ventures
The why
“The highest conviction investments we make are those driven by their teams.” - Jack McQuire, Icehouse Ventures
Angle 04
A Kiwi startup going global from day one
Headline hook
From Grey Lynn to four markets in six months.
The story
Drumbeat launched in Auckland in March 2026 and now serves customers across New Zealand, Australia, the UK and the US - and is using its seed round to expand into Australia and the United States.
Proof points
- Customers in NZ, Australia, the UK and the US
- Customer coverage also landed in Singapore and Hong Kong
- A team of eight experienced operators
The why
Expanding into a new market shouldn’t mean starting a new agency relationship from scratch.
Fact sheet
Key facts
Drumbeat is a PR and comms platform helping high-growth companies find, tell and measure their stories. Launched in March 2026 and headquartered in Auckland, it has more than 50 customers across New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Drumbeat is the fourth company built out of venture studio New+Improved Ventures, and is backed by Icehouse Ventures and Brand Fund.
- What
- PR and comms platform for high-growth companies
- Markets
- New Zealand, Australia, United Kingdom, United States
- Category
- B2B PR technology
- Positioning
- A repeatable, measurable alternative to the traditional agency retainer
- Founded
- [Founding year] · launched March 2026
- Headquarters
- 31 Crummer Road, Grey Lynn, Auckland 1021
Social
[LinkedIn URL]
[X / Twitter URL]
From
the studio that brought you
Backed by Icehouse Ventures and Brand Fund.
Get in touch
Not ready to book a demo? Tell us what you’re working on.
hello@drumbeathq.com
31 Crummer Road, Grey Lynn, Auckland 1021