The 2023/24 Round of the Ākina Impact Investment Readiness Programme has closed.
Congratulations to the recipients of the 23/24 programme, and thank you to everyone that took the time to apply.
The IIRP programme helps fund impact-led businesses to access the professional services they need, to become ready for investment.
Recipients of grants from the 2022 programme have already raised an impressive $23.1m in funding, a whopping 77.1x return on the $300,000 of funding allocated.
Courtenay Hurt-Suwan, Kaihautū, Social Labour Supply
“We have a big lofty goal to ensure whānau prosperity through sustainable employment, especially for Māori and Pasifika. [This programme] will allow our organisation to create a solid foundation required to enable a sustainable future for our people.”
“This grant will assist us with our growth aspirations and, most importantly, ensure the partnerships we are looking at are well aligned with our sustainability and social impact values. ”
Florence Van Dyke, Co-Founder and CEO of Chia Sisters
Accounting and financial support
Business and impact consultancy services
Marketing and communications services
Other support that aligns with your plans to seek investment
Please note: this funding cannot be used for general business expenses, development, or validation – it is specifically for services that enable you to get ready for a significantly larger amount of investment.
1. Submit an expression of interest so we can confirm your eligibility
2. If you’re eligible you’ll be invited to submit a full application.
3. Successful applications may receive up to $25k or part thereof to help access professional services
4. Get ready to go out to investors to scale your business and impact!
To be eligible to apply for the Impact Investment Readiness Programme your organisation needs:
To be an NZ incorporated organisation with some of your activities benefiting NZ
A realistic plan to make a social, environmental and/or cultural difference
A strategy for growth and a need for significant financial investment to fund it
A plan to get ready for that investment this year
Impact investing brings together problem-solvers of real world challenges, and refers to investing with the intention of generating a measurable social or environmental impact alongside a financial return. The impact investing market is estimated to be over $1trillion globally, going to initiatives that exist to generate a measurable positive impact to benefit people and the planet.
Find out more about Impact Investment
Applications are assessed on a rolling basis untill all funding is allocated.
While we endeavour to review your application as quickly as possible, there’s usually a few weeks between applying and being notified of the outcome.
Ākina exists to transform New Zealand's economy through the power of impact! One way we're doing this is by helping to grow a stronger and more streamlined impact investing market in New Zealand; one where more funding is available for social and environmental initiatives.
We want this programme to encourage more investment in impact-driven businesses, to increase the overall impact made by social enterprises and other purpose-led businesses in New Zealand.
The funding for the Impact Investment Readiness Programme comes from the generous contributions of our programme partners Foundation North, Russell McVeagh, Bay Trust and Tindall Foundation.
The Impact Investment Readiness Programme is not currently supported by The New Zealand Government. However Ākina, through The Government funded programme The Impact Initiative, has recommended that the government fund the delivery of a programme that increases the pipeline of businesses ready to take on impact investment. See recommendation 3.2 (page 32) in the report A Roadmap for Impact for more information.
Driven by a shared vision of a more equitable, socially inclusive, and environmentally regenerative New Zealand, Foundation North and Ākina have now worked in partnership for a decade!
Critical, a Māori-owned company based in Aotearoa, New Zealand, is dedicated to addressing the urgent issues of climate change and plastic pollution had previously missed out on funding, applied for the 2022 Ākina Impact Investment Readiness Programme (IIRP) and secured a spot in this programme for the first time.
Leaft Foods are striving to reduce the environmental impact of agriculture by creating a new economy that taps into the global shift to plant-based eating, having developed a model that extracts a highly nutritional plant protein called Rubisco from green leafy crops.
The Ākina Impact Investment Readiness Programme (IIRP) provides funding to impact-led businesses enabling them engage professional advisors and support that helps them get ready to seek impact investment.
Learn how 2021 IIRP recipients, co-founders of Nau Mai Rā, Benjamin Armstrong & Ezra Hirawani, and the Executive Director of Localised, Matthew Luxon used their IIRP funding to get their organisation investment ready.
Send an email to iirp@akina.org.nz for more information.
