Carmen Vicelich

Carmen Vicelich is a New Zealand entrepreneur, originally from South Africa and the founder of Valocity Global and Data Insight — two data analytics businesses that now employ more than 150 people and export New Zealand technology and knowledge to the world.

Vicelich’s entrée into the property-information sector came in 2002 when she landed an IT role at Quotable Value, which later became CoreLogic. She spent a decade in senior corporate roles there, developing deep expertise in how data could transform property markets. In 2012, with four children under the age of nine, she left a highly paid senior position, mortgaged her house and started building.

She founded Data Insight in 2012 to analyse company data and yield personalised consumer insights and Valocity Global a year later to tailor that approach specifically for property valuation and mortgage lending. Valocity’s platform now operates across more than 3,500 cities worldwide, transforming how lenders and valuers assess property risk and value.

The international recognition has been significant. Valocity was named FinTech Scale-Up of the Year at the 2023 India Global IFTA Awards and runner-up at the Global Singapore FinTech Festival Awards in 2022. Vicelich also created Generate Zero, which uses AI to measure carbon emissions for organisations. Closer to home, she won the Tech and Emerging Industries award at the 2023 EY Entrepreneur of the Year awards and was a finalist in the 2019 NZ Women of Influence awards.

Vicelich’s profile is noteworthy because she built two globally recognised data businesses from New Zealand as a solo founder with a young family, proving that deep domain expertise in property and finance data could scale well beyond the domestic market and that a fearless bet on yourself can outperform a safe corporate career.

Carmen features in our look at the NZ founders who built moats out of regulation.

Sources: RNZ · BusinessDesk · EY New Zealand