BusinessDesk's 2026 CEO Index has named Tend Health co-founders Cecilia and James Robinson as startup-category finalists for a second consecutive year, putting founder-led primary healthcare back in the national business conversation.
Tend Health co-founder and co-chief executive Cecilia Robinson. Tend's founders are in the BusinessDesk CEO Index spotlight.
BusinessDesk's 2026 CEO Index has put Tend Health co-founders Cecilia and James Robinson back into the national business conversation, naming the pair as startup-category finalists for a second consecutive year. The current profile is not a funding announcement or a new clinic launch. Its news value is different: it places a founder-led primary healthcare company inside a wider ranking of executives BusinessDesk says are shaping New Zealand's future.
That matters because Tend sits at the junction of two debates that keep returning in New Zealand: how to rebuild access to primary care, and how far technology can help without reducing healthcare to an app. Tend's own public profile describes the business as a digital-first healthcare provider offering both online and in-person GP services. It says Cecilia and James Robinson founded the company in 2020, with the goal of making healthcare more accessible through a mix of technology, clinical expertise and physical clinics.
The founder story is also broader than one company. The Robinsons are already known for building My Food Bag and Au Pair Link before moving into healthcare. Tend's James Robinson profile says he has run marketing, digital and finance teams across those ventures, led sale processes for My Food Bag and Au Pair Link, and worked on Tend's capital raise. That background helps explain why the BusinessDesk profile treats Tend as a startup-category leadership story rather than only a health-sector story.
The challenge for Tend is that primary care is not a normal consumer product. A meal kit can be judged by convenience, price and taste. A GP service has to carry clinical safety, continuity of care, privacy obligations and trust. Tend's own article argues that the primary-care system is fragmented and under pressure, with patients and clinicians dealing with staff shortages, long waits and outdated systems. It also says the company uses clinics alongside its online model, with the change-management work happening clinic by clinic.
For New Zealand readers, the CEO Index finalist nod is a useful checkpoint rather than a verdict. It shows that one of the country's best-known founder teams is still being watched closely as it tries to scale a new model in a high-stakes sector. The question now is not whether the Robinsons can build a recognisable brand. They already have. The question is whether Tend can keep converting founder momentum, capital and digital infrastructure into care that patients, clinicians and communities can rely on.
The public interest is strongest where the business story meets everyday access. If Tend's model can shorten waits, let patients use online care appropriately and support physical clinics where hands-on treatment is needed, it could become part of the answer to a strained system. If it cannot, the CEO Index attention will be remembered as another example of ambition running ahead of healthcare reality. For now, the BusinessDesk spotlight keeps Tend's founders in view as they try to prove that a startup approach can do more than disrupt; it can help rebuild.
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