NZ tech start-ups attracting Māori

There is growing Māori interest in joining a new wave of investors in New Zealand’s fast-growing technology sector – and they’re in it for more than just the money.

It is being seen as a way to diversify investments and make portfolios more resilient, while also creating new opportunities for their people.

“There’s an alignment here, and huge opportunity – especially when tech companies come up with solutions that can help level the playing field for Māori, improve health outcomes, or create additional value for traditional Māori industries," says David Harrison , ANZ’s Head of Māori Relationships.

And Māori?are increasingly aware of the opportunity, according to Harrison,?who convenes ANZ’s annual Māori Investor Forum, an event designed to bring CEOs and Directors of leading Māori investment entities together to accelerate investment activity.?

This year tech featured prominently on the agenda.

“With the increase in more severe weather events, a lot of our assets are prone to adverse changes in the weather,” Heta Hudson , a director of Ngāti Awa Group Holdings , told the Forum.

Ngāti Awa Group Holdings is owned by Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa and represents more than 20,000 Ngāti Awa members from eastern Bay of Plenty.?

“We’ve got kiwifruit, forestry and dairy, but if you think about it, droughts, floods and the cyclones we’ve had recently mean all of these could be considered increasingly high risk,” he said.

“We need to build resilience into our portfolios with investments that aren’t weather-prone, and that means getting comfortable with putting more of our capital into the tech sector,” said Hudson.

Ngāti Awa Group Holdings recently invested in digital payments company BlinkPay , which allows secure instantaneous payments into accounts like Sharesies.

“As a result of the investment we have a position on the Blinkpay board,” Hudson said.

“There’s a lot of benefit to us, because it gives us practical insight into the tech sector, how the business model works, and gives us greater comfort about having our capital there.”

New Zealand Trade and Enterprise Investment Director Rangi Ririnui says Māori interest in tech start-ups is part of a broader change.“

As part of a wider effort to diversify, we’re seeing a shift away from primary industries, and tech is just one of many examples of that,” he said. “It’s seen as something that won’t get smashed by Covid, or the weather, and enables new employment opportunities that are beyond the farm gate.”

Another?Māori tech investor, Rotomā No1 Incorporation , recently bought into Wellington-based operating system software company Kry10 .

Formerly, most of Rotomā’s income came from forestry and leasing land around Lake Rotomā, between Rotorua and Whakatāne, on behalf of its 2,400 tribal owners.

Tumu Whakarae (CEO) Michael Hancock says the investment in Kry10 creates new opportunities and access for their people in the tech sector.

“This allows our people to see that we’re active in the industry, and through things like internships, that there are opportunities for them - possibly a pathway that they can follow,” he said.

“It’s like that expression ‘you don’t know what you want to be, unless you can see it’,” said Hancock.

“It’s about trying to create opportunities in areas that young people actually want to work, and tech and science is that at the moment,” said Ririnui.

“It’s the horse that pulls the cart, but they have to be able to see those future opportunities.”

Kry10’s software - which it hopes will soon be at the heart of many critical networked devices, including infrastructure – introduces a new level of security and control to these systems, reducing the chances of them crashing or being hacked.

“Increasingly we are seeing tech businesses become part of our core infrastructure, so we saw this as a great opportunity, and really believe it’s important we are active in this space,” Hancock said.

Tauhara North No2 Trust – which manages Ngāti Tahu-Ngāti Whaoa’s assets and investments, including the Nga Awa Purua Geothermal Power Station near Taupō – has also invested in a local tech start-up.

It owns part of Banqer - a company which provides financial education programmes for students.

Trust general manager for strategic investment Jamie Rihia says it was interested in the company’s forward-looking focus, and its demonstrated impact.

“They are thinking about different ways of solving some of the problems and issues that exist in society, not just now, but also in the future,” he said.

“That makes us think more about the future, how we interact with each other and how we can solve problems together.”

Rihia says the programme’s proven success was a strong reason to get involved, especially as he could see it being of benefit to the iwi's own people.

“We set quite a high bar when it comes to early investing, especially in tech,” he said. “That said, we are a bit more willing to go with the risk when it is something that can demonstrate impact.

“It was achieving outcomes that we wanted, but that we didn’t think we could do for ourselves, so we're very happy to be involved.”

Tech is currently New Zealand’s second largest export earner , worth $9.8 billion in 2022, but its rapid growth means it could overtake dairy in the next decade.

The opportunity this presents for early-stage investors with long-term intergenerational investment strategies is obvious, Heta Hudson said.

“If we don’t do it, our mokopuna, and theirs after them, will look back and ask why? Why didn’t we do it?”

This article was first published in December 2023