While studying for her Law and Commerce degrees at the University of Auckland, entrepreneur Kate Gatfield-Jeffries co-founded Moodi, a mental wellness brand for women. Kate was part of the Velocity $100k Challenge and worked with the Aotearoa Centre for Enterprising Women. Recently she was selected to be part of an Accelerator Programme for 26 young women entrepreneurs and was the only founder outside the US to participate.  As part of this, she pitched Moodi to a panel of judges at the Women in Business Conference in Nashville and placed second in the competition, winning a $10,000 prize.

Bodymapp is a venture that allows users to track and visualise changes to their bodies. Its cutting-edge app enables iphones to scan and generate 3D avatars which accurately reflect the users body shape. Particularly popular among people persuing health and fitness goals, Bodymapp’s technology can be used by anyone who wants to know more about their body, or visually track changes. Pregnant woman, for example, can use the app to monitor changes to their bodies, and people who prefer online shopping can use the app to obtain precise body measurements easily at any given time.

New Zealand's Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT) is launching an ambitious new Science and Technology Centre with a vision to co-develop Aotearoa’s most culturally diverse, accessible, and enriching STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths) experiences for children and their whānau. The vision for the Centre is to inspire a sense of curiosity in the younger generation, empowering them to think creatively in order to innovate for a more regenerative future. The University of Auckland’s Maker Space Coordinator Hayden Moore is a consultant on the project, offering his advice and insights to help inform their plans. He has already brought inspiration to the Centre experience development through his personal project of an LED periodic table. There are now plans for Hayden to help with a giant interactive version in the new Centre, which is currently in the preliminary developed design phase.

Kevin Park has a background in start-up incubation, growth management, and sales strategy. While he initially pursued a career in medicine, he eventually found his calling in the start-up world, working for organisations such as The Icehouse, Vodafone and Crimson Education. During his time at university Kevin was involved in Spark/Velocity as a participant, a committee member, and later a judge. Currently, he is the Vice President of Sales at Hectre, an orchard management software company, where he is responsible for their revenue growth strategy.

Meet Nova Jackson - a Bachelor of Commerce student double-majoring in Management and Operations and Supply Chain Management, a mother, and a Programme Adviser at the Business School’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE). As a Programme Adviser, Nova is part of the team who organise and facilitate our suite of workshops, events, and development programmes.

The AI rostering software solution, RosterLab, won the University of Auckland’s Velocity $100K Challenge in 2020 after Engineering PhD student Isaac Cleland made a last-minute entry to the entrepreneurship competition. RosterLab is based on his research with Associate Professor Andrew Mason and Dr Michael O’Sullivan into developing new techniques for mathematically optimising large and complex roster models.

Are innovators born or made? This is the underlying query of a forthcoming study, contrasting participants in programmes delivered by the University of Auckland Business School’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) with non-participants.

The University of Auckland’s second ever Terrible Ideas hackathon once again put the theory that there is no such thing as a bad idea to the test – this time with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence.

RisosEnterprises Ltd. is embarking on a mission to revolutionise water safety with a novel, trademarked, handheld water pathogen detector, called the Waicorder. The start-up team have received support from the Business School’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) and received a $1 million MBIE Smart Ideas Grant to enable the development of a proof of concept.

Every year, retailers lose $150B USD to theft and organised retail crime. Auror, the 2012 runner-up of the Velocity $100K challenge, is changing the game with its world-leading crime prevention and detection intelligence platform.