Impact Snapshot
June 2023
In this month’s Impact Snapshot, read about EHF Fellows in action creating environmental, social and economic impact, plus recent recognitions and awards they’ve received.
Fellows in action 🎬
Rob Reid (through his fund Resilience Reserve, LLC) has made a significant multi-million investment in Auckland-based start-up Mint Bio, the world's first company to use natural biomass and smart chemistry to extract green metals from waste commercially. Mint's innovative methodology for extracting heavy metals from electronic waste accelerates the circular economy and reduces NZ’s carbon footprint. Mint has just been named in the inaugural Callaghan 100 Report.
Rob met with the Mint team in March when he was in Aotearoa NZ for his Welcome Experience, after networking with the local entrepreneurial and venture capital community, and is a prime example of the impact Fellows are creating for the NZ innovation ecosystem.
Justin Kan, who co-founded Twitch.tv and now works on Fractal, a Web3 gaming startup, launched FSTUDIO, to help game developers get the best of Web3 with none of the complexity.
The work Justin is doing with Fractal, to create a systems design that eliminates the blockchain jargon and complexity, allows game developers to go to market faster, start play testing sooner, and get ahead of the competition.
Kaye Maree Dunn has been named a finalist at this year’s Te Hapori Matihiko Awards, a celebration of Māori contribution to digital and tech kaupapa.
Kaye Maree is up for the ’Change Maker and Emergent Change Maker’ award for her mahi (work) with MEA Limited, the enterprise she co-founded and which works with Iwi, private, public, and social sectors to provide advisory and growth services for cultural impact and systemic change.
The awards will be announced on 7 July.
Two of Aaron McDonald’s companies were announced in the inaugural Callaghan 100 Report, with Futureverse taking honours on the main list and IMMERSVE on the up and coming companies list. The Sir Paul Callaghan 100 Report celebrates Aotearoa NZ companies that have become world-beating, world-bettering, innovative businesses with global success.
Sasha Lockley continues to create impact with her social enterprise Money Sweetspot, which focuses on helping people to better navigate financial nuance and disrupt predatory lending. Money Sweetspot recently reported that they’re projected to create over $6M of social value across Aotearoa, with a social return of $7 for every $1 invested in their work. In recognition of its positive impact, BNZ (backers behind Money Sweetspot) announced it will double the lending capital it provides to $10 million, up from $5 million.
Money Sweetspot has also been announced as a finalist in the Global FInancial Wellbeing Impact Awards 2023, in the category of ‘Biggest Impact on Financial Health’, with the winners being announced on 6 July.
To hear more about Sasha’s work, and the impact she has created for Aotearoa NZ since launching Money Sweetspot earlier this year, watch her Breakfast TV interview.
Antoinette Wilson and Jordan Osmond, co-founders of Happen Films, continue to share inspiring stories that showcase solutions to the big problems we’re facing, such as climate change, food waste and landfill, and creating a regenerative agriculture system.
Their latest film Ben & bEartha is a 40-minute documentary following a passionate community of composters in Nelson as they attempt to tackle the issue of food waste going to landfill. This film adds to the discussions around the future of food waste processing in Aotearoa NZ and the world.
Dr Angela Lim, CEO and co-founder of Clearhead, NZ's first AI-driven mental health and wellbeing platform, is continuing her advocacy for changing the way people proactively think about their mental health and accessing the help they need. Her insights into burnout prevention and better ways of addressing workplace stress featured in a Stuff article about ‘Bare Minimum Monday’.
Angela also features in the Winter issue of Remix Magazine, about the impact she has made to the healthcare industry in using AI to improve access to mental health support.
Mohan Nair, a leader in enabling purpose-focused companies, also addressed burnout for healthcare at The Healthcare Innovation Congress, in Washington DC, presenting on the topic ‘Taking Care of Our Healthcare Workers by Reimagining Workplace Culture’. Mohan is working with NZ healthcare startups, and the NZ government, to create innovative ideas to ensure NZ is the global innovation hub for healthcare.
Lisa King is disrupting behaviour around alcohol consumption with her new venture AF Drinks, which makes sophisticated non-alcoholic beverages for the ‘sober curious’ to explore a different relationship with alcohol.
AF Drinks has experienced huge growth, particularly after its launch in the US in February this year, with anticipation that the US will be AF Drinks’ biggest market by the end of the year. Due to the NZ non-alcoholic drinks market being ahead of the global curve, Lisa has been able to share her market knowledge with US counterparts.
Lisa recently celebrated investment into AF Drinks from French drinks company Pernod Ricard, through its investment arm Convivialité Ventures, allowing AF Drinks to leverage the global networks that come with the equity stake.
Faumuina Felolini Maria Tafuna’i, a Fellow dedicated to creating systemic change to design better aid and development programmes, was a keynote speaker at the World Conference on Community Development in Darwin.
She presented on the topic of ‘How Indigenous peoples can create frameworks drawing from their culture & the importance of lived experiences in creating these frameworks’. She shared insights into the future of community development needing to take a more indigenous-centred focus, with the need for more indigenous frameworks.
Steven Moe is leading the online Seed Impact Conference in October, which will provide the opportunity to catalyse more impact by reimagining the role of business and for-purpose organisations. The conference includes many EHF Fellow speakers (including Faumuina Felolini Maria Tafuna’i, Oonagh Browne, James Niktine, Shamubeel Eaqub and Hillary Institute and EHF CEO Rosalie Nelson joined by a panel of Fellows), as well as key figures from the Aotearoa NZ innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem. See more information in the just-released programme.
*Images have been provided by Fellows or sourced from the Internet. EHF does not claim to own the images.