Ō mātou Purapura

Meet our Tupu Accelerator 2024 Purapura cohort and find out more about their pakihi

Mīti

Purapura: Daniel Carson

Alps2Oceans Foods is a food innovation company and has developed New Zealand's first, indigenous, sustainable dairy beef snack product called Mīti. Mīti has been designed as a protein rich, dried meat bar, which combines 10-12 month old dairy beef with a unique New Zealand honey product (honeydew), and native New Zealand seaweed (Karengo).

Product:
Mīti – Sustainable nutrition
Industry:
Food and beverage (FoodTech)
Status:
Beta testing/trials
Investment:
$1,014,000 (Agmardt, MPI, BPA, Industry support, Personal capital, Friends and Family)

Business Highlights

  • Fieldays Innovation Finalist 2023
  • Project presented to parliamentary select committee by MPI
  • Large industry collaboration agreement signed May 2024

Drink Da Milgy

Purapura: Saion Angi

In a similar fashion to the commercial success of Korean and Italian cuisine, DRINK DA MILGY envision the untapped market of Polynesian and Māori cuisine becoming a global sensation, accessible to people worldwide.

Product:
A Pasifika Māori milk brand
Industry:
Food and beverage (FoodTech)
Status:
Generating revenue
Investment:
Bootstrapped $200,000

Business Highlights

  • Viral social media posts (500,000 organic reach)
  • Launching the first Pasifika / Maori owned Milk brand into Woolworths
  • Gaining one-year Woolworths supply contract

Kaenga Hou Trust

Purapura: Panapa Ehau

Kaenga Hou Trust offers an innovative whānau-centric finance model, assisting lower-income whānau in achieving homeownership through a unique Progressive Home-Ownership initiative. It seeks to optimise affordability leveraging collective financing, eliminating land ownership barriers, and providing comprehensive support.

Product:
Kaenga Hou – Progressive home ownership finance
Industry:
Finance (FinTech)
Status:
Beta testing/trials
Investment:
$12,180,000 (Impact investment, Philanthropic grants, Ministry of Urban Development)

Business Highlights

  • Creating a progressive home ownership model that allows those locked out of the housing market to access home ownership
  • Scalable rent to own and shared equity models

ŌKU New Zealand

Purapura: Helen Paul Smith

ŌKU New Zealand is an herbal product company whose range consists of herbal teas, healing balms and elixirs. ŌKU focuses on sustainability and regeneration of New Zealand native bush which they sustainably harvest and press into rongoā/wellness products. ŌKU builds upon the foundations of Mātauranga Māori principles.

Product:
Blending traditional Māori knowledge and sustainable practices to create unique herbal products
Industry:
Food and beverage (FoodTech)
Status:
Generating revenue
Investment:
KI International – $100,000

Business Highlights

  • B Corp Certification
  • 170+ retail outlets in NZ
  • Key retailers: David Jones Australia, Aelia Duty-Free, Wai Ariki Spa Rotorua, Te Papa
  • Currently exporting to the Middle East and Australia
  • Award-winning wellness products

Bhone Beauty

Purapura: Renei Kingi

Bhone is a nutraceutical company dedicated to providing wahine with premium supplements and wellness solutions that prioritise their health, well-being, and self-care.

Product:
Premium supplements dedicated to supporting mothers globally
Industry:
Health and Beauty (HealthTech)
Status:
Beta testing/trials
Target Market:
Mothers in Asia Pacific – pre-natal, pregnancy & postpartum

Business Highlights

  • Overwhelmingly positive product taste testing with target market
  • Secured domestic manufacturer
  • Product launch in the coming months

IndigiShare

Purapura: Maria Ngawati

IndigiShare is mātauranga Māori led and mana motuhake driven social enterprise building economic resilience amongst whānau so that we can live in a world where the power of koha grows and enables impact.

Product:
Te Waharoa – The world's first indigenous payment gateway
Industry:
Finance (FinTech)
Status:
Prototype
Investment:
$555,000 (Crowdfund, MBIE, JR McKenzie, Booster Foundation)

Business Highlights

  • Building IT infrastructure, governance and organisational structure
  • Building to prototype
  • Testing at Te Matatini 2023
  • Market research and insights

IRIS Power Pack

Purapura: Waide Armstrong

IRIS is a Climate Tech startup that is working on the adoption issues of renewable energy to the main grid. These are intermittency and lack of inertia problems to not just the grid of Aotearoa, but to every grid in the world who runs renewable energy.

Product:
Infinity Renewable Innovation System
Industry:
Energy (Renewable Energy)
Status:
Prototype
IP Protection:
International PCT

Business Highlights

  • Participating in the TUPU Accelerator
  • Meeting professionals through TUPU helping progress the business
  • Progressing with prototype development

Puāwai Farms

Purapura: Longo Reo Te Kooro

Puāwai Farms's goal is simple, making high quality medicinal cannabis product accessible for all. Its founder Longo Reo Te Kooro brings years of experience and already proven models honed in California through four market cycles. He aims to cultivate and provide affordable, high quality medical cannabis for all of Aotearoa.

Product:
Making high quality cannabis flower accessible for all
Industry:
Agriculture (AgriTech)
Status:
Generating revenue
Investment:
$4,500,000 ($480,000 raised to date)

Business Highlights

  • Incorporated in April 2023
  • Gained immigration accreditation sponsoring Americans to support cultivation operations
  • Secured land
  • Established offtake agreements throughout New Zealand

Taurus Concrete

Purapura: Hanna Ngatai

Taurus Concrete utilises cutting edge "smart crushing" technology to create a fully circular concrete system. They exist to close the loop on concrete by transforming waste rubble concrete back into its original components of aggregate, sand and cement.

Product:
The Kali Crusher – A uniquely designed concrete crushing technology
Industry:
Construction (CleanTech)
Status:
Beta testing/trials
Investment:
$300,000 (Own money, Private Investor, Akina Grant, Te Puni Kokiri, Creative HQ)

Business Highlights

  • Private investment secured
  • Pathway to international IP identified
  • First functional test of products complete
  • MoU signed for feedstock supply
  • MoU in progress with Cambridge Electric Cement Company

Kiwi Brandy Company

Purapura: Anthony Bell

Anthony Bell (Whakatōhea) is the Co-founder of Kiwi Brandy Company. His career has been in the export cut flower industry for 40 years as part of a family business, Bell Orchids Ltd. This involved growing cymbidium orchids and then transitioning to Hydrangea. Anthony worked for 15 years as the manager, however it was recently disestablished due to climate change.

Industry:
Food and beverage
Background:
40 years in export cut flower industry, transition to spirits production

Toi Tī

Purapura: Timmy Smith

Timmy Smith (Whakatōhea) is the founder and innovator behind Toi Tī. Having formed a number of companies over her 20-plus years in the entrepreneurial space, the pou whenua of care and connection have been the foundations of all she has crafted.

Background:
20+ years in entrepreneurial space, focused on care and connection