New Marlborough Tech Hub A ‘Gamechanger

Thursday, 31 July 2025, 5:24 pm
Article: Kira Carrington - Local Democracy Reporter

A deconstructed Nintendo Switch, robots that deliver chocolate, and a poster for an algorithm workshop are strewn around Marlborough’s new tech hub.

They’re welcome signs that the tech community has embraced its new home at Te Au Pūngao, which opened five months ago.

Kitted out with computers, soldering stations, 3D printers and even virtual reality headsets, the upstairs area of the former Blenheim library functioned as an office, workshop, and community space for tech whizzes of today and tomorrow.

Louisa Murray, managing director of Whiringa, contracted to run the space by the Marlborough District Council, said working with the hub’s diverse members was “shockingly fun”.

“At its most basic, it’s a co-working space, it’s desks, offices, and meeting rooms for remote workers, start-ups, founders,” Murray said.

“What I think is really special about this place is the community.

“We’ve worked really hard on building a community feel around the place.

“Everyone knows each other, we do regular morning teas, just for the residents.

“Tech people are generally a little bit more introverted. If you're working for a company remotely, you might not necessarily have co-workers that sit with you and you can bounce problems back and forth [with].”

Tonielle Purdy, owner of graphic design business For Good Studio, said she had been part of Te Au Pūngao since its opening.

“It's been such a gamechanger to have a proper space to come to, and clock-in-clock-out, [and] talk to the other people in the space,” Purdy said.

It's been really great to just have a sounding board ... to have that community aspect of being able to commiserate and celebrate with people around you.”

Murray said one advantage of the space was that it attracted digital nomads, skilled people with remote jobs who could settle anywhere in the world.

One such nomad was John Grant, who worked as a software engineer for the fully remote 3D mapping company DroneDeploy.

Grant said he originally brought his family from Wellington to Marlborough to work for a different company. When he started in his current role, which allowed him to live anywhere, having fallen in love with the region, he opted to stay and became one of the first members of Te Au Pūngao.

“We didn't want to leave Marlborough, we love it here,” he said.

“We’ve got young kids and they've really got a good group of friends, and we’re pretty happy here.”

Grant said in the future he would like to see more students come into the space, to help get them get started in the tech industry.

“I would like to see more students interact with engineers like myself.

“People who are really pushing the edge or doing their own business ... it'd be good to see that organically influence students.

“Open that spark of curiosity that can then lead them to go find out more.”

Murray said Te Au Pūngao had already smashed its targets for its first year.

They had filled two thirds of their 24 desks, smashing their goal of filling 10 desks in the first year, and exceeding revenue goals by $20,000.

However the enterprise was yet to become profitable.

Murray said the goal was to be financially sustainable by 2027, when council funding for the project ran out.

“I was given three years to be sink or swim,” Murray said.

“If by July 27, if it’s not fully self-funding, then council pulls the plug.”

But Murray said she enjoyed the challenge and felt confident about it.

“It’s nice to have a goal to work towards.

“We filled up the seats way faster than expected.”

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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