How Nau Mai Rā and Localised used their IIRP funding

Ben Armstrong & Ezra Hirawani Co-founders of Nau Mai Rā, 2021 Impact Investment Readiness Programme (IIRP) Recipients

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.

+Accessibility: Video Description

The 2022 Ākina Impact Investment Readiness Programme campaign. Featuring logos from sponsors: Foundation North, WEL Energy Trust, The Tindall Foundation and KiwiBank. Ākina Chief Executive Officer, Nicola Nation talks about the programme, cutting between clips of previous recipients with Nicola’s voice over, back to Nicola. Video cuts to past recipients, Nau Mai Rā co-founders Ben Armstrong and Ezra Hirawani talking about their organisation. Next the video cuts to slideshow of images from another past recipient, Localised. Localised executive Director Matthew Luxon talks about Localised. Audio and video cuts back and forth from Ben Armstrong and Ezra Hirawani speaking about how they used the funding for their organisation, and back to Localised executive Director Matthew Luxon. Video wraps up with Ākina Chief Executive Nicola Nation speaking about the programme, another display of the logo, and a call to action to visit the website ‘For more information visit akina.org.nz/iirp Video ends.

+Accessibility: Video Transcript

00:00:02,640 → 00:00:23,280 Nicola Nation: The Impact Investment Readiness Programme was launched in 2017. This year's programme is bigger and better than ever. We have over $300,000 worth of grants up for grabs for impact-led recipients. It allows businesses access to a grant that they can use in any way they choose to help them get ready to seek investor support.

00:00:23,800→ 00:00:32,320 Ben Armstrong: Nau Mai Rā is New Zealand's first kaupapa Māori power company. We use the power bills of those who can afford to pay for their energy to support those who can't.

00:00:32,400 → 00:00:42,000 Matthew Luxon: So, Localised is trying to address the waste problem in New Zealand. So what we're trying to do is create the situation in which waste isn't going to landfill. Instead, it becomes a part of the circular economy.

00:00:42,000 → 00:00:46,560 Ben Armstrong: We used the Invest Readiness funding on bringing on a Māori business advisor.

00:00:46,560 → 00:00:51,960 Matthew Luxon: So, we spent it on lawyers, accountants and getting our pitch deck ready. It's been amazing. It changed everything.

00:00:51,960 → 00:01:01,760 Ezra Hirawani: There's an opportunity to gain absolute clarity on how you can play your role to make sure that you actually deliver the impact that you set out to achieve right from day one.

00:01:01,760 → 00:01:08,520 Ben Armstrong: One of the things we're most proud of is growing our customer numbers from 2000 to 3500, so up by 75%.

00:01:09,960 → 00:01:20,880 Matthew Luxon: We've gone from a turnover of around about 50 to 100K to a turnover around about 3 million. And already we've diverted 18 tons of material from going to landfill.

00:01:21,920 → 00:01:35,680 Nicola Nation: We believe that it's really important for impacted-led businesses to have access to capital to help them to scale and grow. This allows them to amplify the positive social and environmental impact that they are having within their business and across Aotearoa.