Akina Foundation LaunchPad

E aku rangatira, tēnā koutou katoa. Ka nui te honore ki te mihi ki a koutou.

Good afternoon everyone.  I am very pleased to be here for the culmination of Ākina Foundations first Launchpad accelerator programme.

There has been a lot of hard work for the six months leading up to this event. Congratulations to the Launchpad teams for their dedication - your projects are valuable contributions to real issues. 

Congratulations also to the teams from Ākina and the partner companies – KMPG, Deloitte, Russell McVeagh, New Zealand Post, Vodafone, Fonterra, and the AUT MBA alumni. The advice and support they have provided has been invaluable.

In particular, I recognise the amount of support provided to the programme by Contact Energy, which contributed financially alongside the Government.

The progress we are seeing in social enterprise development in New Zealand is exciting.

Your work, as social entrepreneurs, creates employment and generates income while tackling issues that government alone cannot solve.

Many social enterprises are fledgling start-ups in New Zealand, and a challenge to our communities is to get behind them and take part in this social movement. Only that way will we inspire more businesses to consider the good of their communities alongside the profit of their business.

In my role as Minister for this sector I am fortunate to meet social entrepreneurs daily, and visit very diverse social enterprises throughout New Zealand. As social entrepreneurs, I envisage that your drive, imagination, initiative and courage, teamed with your leadership abilities, mean we will increasingly see businesses valuing social outcomes.

It’s important to keep cultivating the new ideas. Ākina is making a great contribution to seeing in the next wave of social enterprises, and the teams here today are evidence of the diverse ventures that are emerging.

I anticipate that today’s event will result in further support for the teams as they move into the next stage of their development. I wish you all well and look forward to hearing of your progress.

Nō reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa.