Unique chance to partner with Northland business owners

Investors looking to catch a company on the rise should make a beeline for The Orchard at 10am on Friday, 24 May.

Kai Ora Honey, Akudos, Engin. Systems, and Clever Dicks Hardware – four of the region’s most progressive and successful companies – will be on centre stage when Northland Inc’s Business and Events Hub hosts one of the Highlight Events of Techweek19, the Startup Innovation Showcase.

Owners Richard Brookes and Wairere Iti (Akudos), Blanche Morrogh (Kai Ora Honey), Adrian Tonks (Engin. Systems) and Richard Owens (Clever Dick Hardware) will be on hand to give audiences the benefit of their wisdom, as well as an invaluable and rare insight into what drives them and what makes their businesses tick.

Jiveen MacGillivray, Growth Advisor and Innovation Specialist at Northland Inc, called it “an opportunity too good to miss”.

“This is a unique opportunity to talk face to face to four of the most innovative business founders in Northland,” he said. “Company owners are busy people and chances like this one don’t come along every day, so grab it while you can.

“It’s also free and bound to be super inspiring. All four companies have global offerings and their stories are critically important – not just for Northland but for New Zealand as a whole.”

Cassie McAdams, Investment Manager at New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, said: “These companies are a shining example of the diverse community of entrepreneurs flourishing in this region. Techweek is all about innovation and this forum will make a significant contribution to the festival.”

Akudos – a past winner of The Pick, Northland Inc’s business accelerator competition – is a SaaS (Software-as-Service) product that manages and simplifies awards programmes. The company focuses particularly on overseas markets and has staff in Waipu, Auckland, Canada and the Middle East.

Kai Ora Honey operates 2000 hives in the far North and produces some of New Zealand’s highest active manuka honey; it exports to Asia, the Middle East, UK and the United States. Blanche Morrogh won the Auckland University Young Maori Business Leader Award in 2017.

Engin. Systems is an emerging software maker, based in Whangarei, while Clever Dicks Hardware specialise in farm technology.

“These businesses are exporting, taking risks, making things happen and making the most of what Northland has to offer,” Jiveen said.

The forum, he added, will use “a chat-show style, an informal, informative approach that is a world away from Dragons’ Den or Shark Tank. The idea is to provide an authentic insight into these exciting businesses in Northland”.

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