Top Six Finalists Through To Innovate Hawke’s Bay

Across two nights last week, 20 entrepreneurs and innovators pitched their ideas to a room of business people, community leaders, professionals and creatives, hoping to gain access to the rigorous Innovate Hawke’s Bay programme.

Now in its second year, Innovate has quickly embedded itself into the fabric of the Hawke’s Bay entrepreneurial ecosystem. What started out in the Manawatū as a “Dragons’ Den” competition in 2011 led by The Factory, has spread across four regions and transformed into a process that not only builds business but more importantly, builds people.

“It’s encouraging to see that innovation is alive and well here in Hawke’s Bay,” enthuses Hal Josephson, programme director for Innovate Hawke’s Bay and experienced entrepreneur. “This year we have had a diverse set of applicants; some older, many younger, half men, half women, and truly a broad spectrum of business ideas.

The mentor evaluators had a tough time coming to a unanimous selection of the six individuals who will spend the next 10 weeks developing their business idea into a plan and a pitch for the final pitch night on November 30.

The 10-week accelerator programme kicks off in Hawke’s Bay on September 12 where each finalist will be partnered with local Hawke’s Bay mentors who will be by their side through the entire process.

“Innovate’s proven model sets out to find those that are stuck or have a novel idea and need a bit of guidance to push forward. We were delighted at the quality of applications received and it was tough to select the top six.” says Nick Gain, Chief Executive Office of The Factory.

Underpinning and supporting the programme are national and local sponsors; BNZ, MediaWorks, Fingermark, Furnware, Rockit, Metalform, Ask Your Team, and HB Tech.

The Process

Over the next ten weeks, the six finalists will meet each week at Hastings HIVE and dive into building their idea into a validated business. Each finalist will have tailored support and be paired with mentors, as well as have access to the full mentor pool The Factory has built over the past 12 years, which includes national and international presence.

Using lean methodologies, finalists will learn about intellectual property and protection, cash flow and budgeting, validation and most importantly, what it’s like to be an entrepreneur. This all cumulates into a pitch night happening on the 30th of November at Toitoi in Hastings where each will have an opportunity to present their validated idea to local business leaders, angel investors and others that support entrepreneurialism in the region.

The Innovate Hawke’s Bay 2022 winner will receive $5,000 in start-up cash to support their idea.

Finalists

Andrew Clark, Sunrayker Solar Energy Farms

Sunrayker Solar Energy Farms uses a fully vertically integrated business model to build solar energy farms all around the world using proprietary concentrated solar energy heliostats to collect and store the solar energy as super high-temperature thermal energy and then earn higher revenues by using the stored thermal energy to generate electricity during peak demand times.

Melissa Eames, Transforming You Course and Centre

Helping women overcome adversity after an abusive relationship through an online course and and 12 fully self-contained houses. This aims to reduce the number of times a woman returns after escaping by providing them and their children with safe and more permanent residence with full support while they rebuild their life, self-confidence, self-worth, heal from trauma and rediscover who they are again.

Ian Herbison, The Skilly

A device that teaches people how to fillet fish allowing them to practice filleting fish as many times as they want. People can then teach other people using the device and so on and so on. Children above a certain age with supervision can also learn as well, and the device will be made of recycled plastics.

Callum Ross, In-tank Sensor

RossAi has developed a new and innovative way of measuring sulphur dioxide and carbon dioxide in real-time. The system measures directly from the tank or wine barrel instantly displaying the data on a live dashboard. The benefits of this method will help reduce time-consuming labour and laboratory costs, along with data collection errors. Data can be viewed 24/7 and on a mobile device. Our tank sensor can also measure colour using a unique camera located inside the tank alongside other sensors providing an all-in-one laboratory solution.
 

Shaleah Lawrence, Earthwoven

Combining science with nature, Earthwoven Skincare is 100% natural, naturally derived vegan-friendly, as well as cruelty-free. Using the scientifically proven ingredients cutibiome and sryicalm allows for confident claims around oil/sebum reduction.

Gretta Carney, Hapi Turmeric Tonic

The Hapi collective are creative innovators of whole, healthy and healing kai. The first product is a turmeric tonic with a simple ingredient list, great storage potential and a proven track record for superb health benefits. Hapi is a kaupapa Māori producer working from within the Hua Parakore (uncontaminated product) framework which offers a point of difference and a clear story to tell.

About Innovate

Innovate’s purpose is to encourage local entrepreneurialism which sparks the local economy by growing young companies, new business and thought leaders as well as new technology. Since 2011, Innovate has established a pathway for this to occur, as well as a model that continues to build its people along the way.

To date:

• There has been a total of 1,796 entries.
• Innovate is now in four regions: Manawatū, Hawke’s Bay, Whanganui, and Taranaki.
• More than 80 businesses have been created.
• $130,000 of prize money has been awarded.
• $5.2 million dollars has been invested into Innovate companies.
• Thousands of hours have been given to founders through the Innovate mentor network.
• Over 750 practice pitches have occurred.
• More than $1,000,000 of in-kind services from The Factory have been provided.

About The Factory

The Factory are a team of curious individuals that thrive to support entrepreneurs, founders, start-ups and companies. They are a business development, training and innovation hub located in Palmerston North, Manawatū that works nationwide.

They help individuals, start-ups and companies with new ideas begin the process of scaling and becoming contributors to our communities. They have established themselves as a world leader in business acceleration and are specialists in agritech, agrifood and new technologies.

Their expertise working with founders, start-ups and business owners runs deep, having been established 18 years ago, and have supported over 4,000+ entrepreneurs and start-ups.

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