Hikurangi secures significant investment to build social enterprise capability in New Zealand

We’re expanding our incubation and development services for high potential social enterprise across New Zealand thanks to a major funding boost from the Government and our new corporate partner, Contact Energy.

With the support of our new partners, and the partnerships we’ve built up over the last eighteen months, it’s fair to say that we’re really excited about what we’re going to be able to offer in the social enterprise space in 2014 and beyond.

The Government (via the Department of Internal Affairs) has announced funding of $1.27 million over two years to help us build up our services and develop a social enterprise accelerator pilot, which will be co-funded by Contact Energy, who are also our new lead energy partner.

So, what can you expect to see from us in 2014?

To start with, we’ll be broadening our focus to include areas of critical social impact as well as the environmental areas that we already work within. This is an expansion of our mission, and aligns with our integrated vision for a sustainable, prosperous and inclusive future.

Our goal is to support and deliver the next generation of transformative social enterprises.

To deliver this we will continue to offer wrap-around support including:

Business mentoring and hands-on development support

Targeted seed-funding to cover critical development costs

Professional services and expertise through our Compass Network

Links to networks and partnerships

This support will be offered through four programmes that serve the different development needs of social enterprises as they design, validate, and grow their ventures:

Workshops and clinics

The first offer will be a series of workshops and clinics that we’ll run up and down the country on a regular basis, often in partnership with local organisations. These programmes will be open to all and provide both skills development and targeted problem solving.

Advisory services

The second offer will be our advisory services. Appropriate for social enterprises of all sizes and at all stages of development, the support will be scoped to specific needs and will be short-term in nature.

Accelerator pilot

In the autumn we’ll be launching a social enterprise accelerator pilot for transformational early-stage ideas. The programme design will be informed by successful programmes overseas and will delivered in partnership with Contact Energy and many of our other partners. It will provide the opportunity for teams across New Zealand to win a place on an intensive six-month development journey that will navigate business design, market validation, development planning, and engagement with appropriate funders and investors. Our plan is to run and develop this programme every year.

Incubation

Finally, we’ll continue to offer our full incubation service. The introduction of our other programmes enables us to focus the incubation programme on more established social enterprises who have the potential for impact, scale and transformational change within New Zealand.

To deliver these programmes we’ve been building our team, and continue to bring on board talented and experienced people with diverse backgrounds – take a look in our People section to see who’s joined us.

And, of course, we’ll be on the look out for further opportunities to collaborate and serve New Zealand’s social enterprise sector as the year unfolds.

We welcome your comments, questions or suggestions – get in touch with us

The Hikurangi Team

ps If you’re interested in finding out more about the accelerator pilot, register your interest and we’ll be in touch.