Impact Investment Readiness Recipients Announced
Chia Sisters founders Chloe and Florence Van Dyke, and Mentemia Co-Founder Sir John Kirwan.
Ākina is proud to announce the recipients of this year’s Impact Investment Readiness Programme. The programme provides funding of up to $30,000 for impact-led businesses to spend on professional services that get them ready for investment, and has previously supported businesses like LearnCoach to raise over $1 million in impact investment.
“We’ve been really heartened by the applications we’ve received so far – the depth of the impact these enterprises are making across Aotearoa is brilliant to see and we’re looking forward to receiving final submissions in the coming weeks.” says Ākina CEO Louise Aitken
“Each of these Kiwi businesses are readying themselves to raise capital – we anticipate each recipient will raise around 20 times the funding we give them in impact investment. They are each actively on their journey to growth, which is positive in a challenging economy. We strongly believe that impact-led businesses are going to be an important part of New Zealand’s recovery.” says Louise.
The programme is made possible thanks to the support of programme partners Foundation North, The Tindall Foundation, Kiwibank and WEL Energy Trust.
Note: this article was originally published on October 15th, listing the recipients of the October round of programme funding. It was updated on 18 November with an additional four recipients announced as part of the November round.
November round recipients
EnviroStrat
EnviroStrat are exploring establishing a seaweed farm in New Zealand, due to its various environmental, social and cultural benefits. It is based off of the successful GreenWave model in the US. Envirostrat works alongside public and private organisations, iwi and other key stakeholders, to create and execute impact-focused projects that deliver positive financial returns, and measurable environmental improvements
Little Yellow Bird
Little Yellow Bird turns sustainable and transparent textiles into products that are better for people and the planet. The cotton they source is exclusively organic and rain-fed, traceable right back to the farms that grew the crop. They supply clothing to individuals and large scale organisations and recently started recycling returned garments. During the Covid-19 pandemic they’ve started making face masks, and have partnered with local impact partner Sai Dham to donate over 15,000 meals to migrant workers in India.
Localised
Localised create community enterprises to tackle problems in the resource recovery sector. They provide specialised practical support by being a joint venture partner in new or expanding initiatives. Localised is owned by the Community Enterprise Network Trust (CENT), the organisation behind the Zero Waste Network.
OneBin
OneBin have developed artificial intelligence that identifies and appropriately sorts waste at the point of collection. OneBin is a device that goes on top of your rubbish bin, identifies what the rubbish is, and sorts it! They are currently conducting trials with Z Energy, and are in conversations with other significant organisations in NZ.
October round recipients
Big Street Bikers
Big Street Bikers is enabling more electric bikes to ride around Aotearoa in a variety of ways, from stands and charging infrastructure, to rent to own models of your very own electric bike. With electric bike usage increasing significantly, the opportunities for this business are growing too, and they are preparing to seek impact investment to enable these to be realised.
Chia Sisters
Chia produces nutritious drinks at NZ’s first solar powered juicery, while also helping businesses understand how to become Zero Carbon in their spare time… They too have some exciting opportunities on the horizon, and this programme is helping them to get ready for those.
Supergenerous
This is a platform that enables donations to charities go a little further by automating the processing of donation tax rebates so you don't have to worry about it! Supergenerous (formerly called Fund a Future) enables you to keep the rebate for yourself or donate it to charity. They're also preparing for investment and this funding is going to accelerate their impact investment readiness and get them closer to making every Kiwi donation go a little further.
Mentemia
A business founded by Sir John Kirwan and Adam Clark that is aiming to tackle the mental health crisis in New Zealand and abroad. It does this via a wellbeing programme for businesses and individuals, the key product of which is an engaging mobile app that is like a mental wellbeing coach in your pocket. They have goals to help hundreds of millions of people, and investment will be a key ingredient on that journey.
Social Labour Supply
Social Labour Supply provide meaningful and sustainable employment opportunities for whānau through a multi-disciplinary approach, working with some of Āotearoa’s largest organisations. They are a very ambitious, values based organisation, and this programme is going to enable them to achieve their goals even faster to support increased self-efficacy and whānau prosperity.
Treadlite
Treadlite are giving new life to used tyres by creating domestic markets for this harmful but potentially valuable waste stream. Treadlite have experienced rapid traction in their first year of operation but their current capacity represents just 3% of the approximately 7 million tyre equivalents that are disposed of in NZ each year. The opportunity for growth is huge and they are in the process of preparing for impact investment to scale up their impact.
Zincovery
Zincovery have developed an innovative process to turn metal waste into reusable and valuable materials, creating a circular loop from what may have otherwise been disposed of. After winning Callaghan’s C-Prize recently, they continue to go from strength to strength, and are in the process of raising capital right now.
