Tupu Showcase
See our founders pitch their pakihi to the world
Meet Aotearoa’s emerging founders
The Tupu Showcase is the culmination of an intensive eight-week accelerator supporting Māori founders building scalable ventures for global markets.
Across the evening, ten startups will take the stage to present their ventures spanning technology, wellness, sustainability, AI, consumer products, and innovation-led solutions.
This is an opportunity to hear directly from the next generation of Māori entrepreneurs as they share the whakaaro, innovation, and ambition shaping the future of Māori enterprise.
2 July 2026
Aotea Centre, Auckland
EB tickets from $150 +GST
Connecting founders and capital
The Tupu Showcase offers a unique opportunity to gain early exposure to Māori-founded ventures preparing to scale into national and global markets.
Now in its third consecutive year, Tupu has become a growing pipeline for high-growth Māori entrepreneurship, supporting founders across technology, agritech, sustainability, wellness, AI, and innovation-led sectors.
Since launching in 2024, the accelerator has supported 53 founders from 30 businesses. Alumni ventures have gone on to raise capital, enter export markets, secure national retail distribution, and build partnerships across the innovation ecosystem.
Experience and evening of Māori innovation and enterprise
The Tupu Showcase has been designed to create meaningful connections between founders, investors, and Aotearoa’s wider innovation ecosystem.
The showcase begins with an exhibition hour, where guests will have the opportunity to engage directly with founders as they exhibit their pakihi before moving into the formal showcase programme, where ventures will pitch live on stage.
Throughout the evening, attendees will hear directly from emerging founders building ventures across technology, sustainability, wellness, AI, agritech, and innovation-led sectors, alongside opportunities for networking and connection across the ecosystem.
Your ticket includes:
- Exhibition hour and one-on-one interaction with the founders
- Access to all live startup pitches
- Three-course dining experience
- Beer, wine, and refreshments
- Networking opportunities
- Live entertainment
Ō mātou pakihi | Meet our startups

Ako Insight
Ashleigh Heke & Pati Lafaialii
Ako Insight is a curriculum‑aligned planning platform that helps kaiako create consistent, high‑quality learning plans with less workload. It brings progressions, templates, and team visibility into one simple, culturally grounded system built for Aotearoa.

The Long Game
Julia Steenson, Toni Lea, Cassie Roma
The Long Game is an athlete-transition programme that helps individuals discover who they are beyond sport. Athletes are supported to articulate their transferable strengths in leadership, resilience, discipline, teamwork.

DairyTech Solutions
Tawa Holyoake
DairyTech Solutions has built the AXIS system: a portable, on-farm drying unit that converts waste milk into a stable, feed-grade powder in hours. Farmers recover value from a waste stream, eliminate discharge costs, and produce a high-quality calf feed on-site. No transport. No contractors. No waste.

Hinu Ora
Kimberly Tait & Rowena Lloyd
Hinu Ora is a whānau Māori business producing premium, natural kānuka oil and hydrosol from leaves hand-harvested on our whenua. Their products are designed to support pain relief, skin health, and antibacterial cleaning, offering a powerful, plant-based alternative to synthetic solutions.

Insyt
Hannah Dryland & Lachlan Arthur
Insyt is a digital health platform being developed to help people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) better understand and manage their symptoms day to day. They are focused on reducing the uncertainty and trial and error that many people with IBS experience, by combining wearable data with simple user inputs to provide personalised, practical guidance.

PetUltra
Sam Scott & Manu Weepu
Pet-Food Nutrition developed with a Conscience from nature to bowl. Designed to enhance pet health and longevity, replicating humanised nutrition, ensuring that pets receive the same quality and care in their diet as their guardians.

Rauhī
Nicola Walker & Kelly Brown
Rauhī is an Aotearoa-founded luxury wool wallcovering concept, transforming New Zealand strong wool into architectural textiles for the global interior design market. Designed and manufactured in Aotearoa, Rauhī provides a wallcovering that is acoustic, air-purifying, and fire-resistant.

iSPARX
Joffre Kopu, James Norling & Bram Holyoake
AR+IQ is iSPARX’s modular spatial computing platform that combines AR, AI, and geospatial intelligence to create intelligent, location-aware experiences.

Tīrama Vital
Bernece Maude
Tīrama Vital Limited is a Māori-led functional food company developing innovative products using Aotearoa-sourced bioactives (from land, sea, and native Māori botanicals), including a functional jelly stick format designed to make nutrition convenient and enjoyable.

kahu.code
Michael Puhara & Xaviere Murray-Puhara
kahu.code is a Māori-owned, father-daughter-AI-run software company committed to integrating AI with the richness of te ao Māori. Currently sitting at the intersection of AI, te reo Māori and education, kahu.code is looking to move toward purpose-built small language models, devices and beyond.

















