The Global Entrepreneurship Network New Zealand (GEN NZ) recognised the winners of the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Awards last week on Thursday 26 October in a ceremony and celebration at GridAKL.
The annual awards recognise New Zealand’s rising entrepreneurs, their ventures, and the ecosystem that supports them.
GEN NZ Chair Dave Moskovitz said that the judging was really tough, and each of the finalists deserved to win. He added, “Aotearoa New Zealand is experiencing an explosion in the diversity of our entrepreneurs, their ventures, and the supporting ecosystem. Most of our ventures have a social bent to them, trying to improve the society and the world that we live in with new products and services. In these trying times, our entrepreneurs are heroes that can give us hope that our children and grandchildren will live in a fairer, healthier, exciting, human-centric and sustainable world.”
GEN NZ’s mission is to connect entrepreneurs to the people and resources they need to thrive locally and globally. Members include entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs, investors, incubators, accelerators, academia, local and central government, NGO’s, and others. Globally, the GEN network is active in over 180 countries.
GEN NZ Entrepreneur Ecosystem Award 2023 winners and finalists were:
| Category | Winner | Finalists |
|---|---|---|
| Academic Initiative of the year | Velocity | B.spkl, Stephen Cummings / Slush’d, Velocity |
| GEN NZ Connector of the year | Pauli Sosa | Pete Howard, Pascale Hyboud-Peron, Richard Liew, Jenny Rudd, Pauli Sosa |
| Entrepreneur of the year | Rick Kiessig / Kimer Med | Christina Houlihan / Bspkl, Natalie Jones /Seasick Sunscreen, Rick Kiessig / Kimer Med, Mrinali Kumar / Eat Kinda, Olivia Ogilvie / Opo Bio |
| Entrepreneur Support Organisation of the year | Doso | Caffeine Daily, CreativeHQ, Doso, Sprout, Startup NZ |
| Investor of the year | MJ Alvarez / WNT Ventures | MJ Alvarez / WNT Ventures, Sharon Bryant, Richard Coon, Suse Reynolds, Bridget Unsworth |
| Māori Entrepreneur of the year | Kaye-Maree Dunn | Kaye-Maree Dunn, Joe Harawira, Ratu Mataira, Kushla Okano |
| GEN NZ Member Representative of the year | Pascale Hyboud-Peron | Pascale Hyboud-Peron, Catriona Stewart, Dan Thurston Crowe |
| Public Sector Initiative of the year | Jenny Douché / Callaghan Innovation | CreativeHQ – GovTech, Jenny Douché / Callaghan Innovation, Kiwinet, Catriona Stewart / GridAKL |
| Social Entrepreneur of the year | Sasha Lockley / Money Sweetspot | Julia Arnott-Neenee, Sasha Lockley / Money Sweetspot, Laura Nixon / Solid Oral Care, TechDisOut |
| Youth Programme of the year | The Brave Venture | The Brave Venture, Flying Geese Productions, Young Enterprise |
