Kiwis scrolling through MoneyHub’s TikTok might be surprised to learn that Junius Ong, Director of Social Media Marketing at MoneyHub and the familiar face seen in many of the videos, is in fact a medical student at the University of Auckland.

For the seventh year, students from all faculties across the University of Auckland came together to develop their entrepreneurial skills at Summer Lab, an intensive four-week programme delivered by CIE designed to inspire and ignite the entrepreneur within through action-oriented learning.

EnergyBank is an energy storage technology company founded by University of Auckland alumnus Tim Hawkey. Their technology, which envisions moving multi-thousand-tonne blocks of iron-ore the size of buildings back and forth between the ocean floor and surface, is a sustainable, economic, and scalable solution to accelerating decarbonisation.

Since the first International Women’s Day was honoured 111 years ago, the role of women in global economies has changed rapidly, and along with it developed a shift in perceptions of gendered propensity for risk in the sphere of financial dealings.

In 2021, Professor Christine Woods was appointed as the Inaugural Theresa Gattung Chair for Women in Entrepreneurship. She will be establishing the Aotearoa Centre for Enterprising Women this year with a focus on creating opportunities for PhD and Post Doc research.

Jessica Tulp has been riding a tidal wave of industry innovation. She has already developed substantial experience in cutting-edge industries including New Zealand’s emerging space industry, and is now diving head-first into the metaverse with AI humanisation company Soul Machines.

Velocity is the University of Auckland’s flagship student-led entrepreneurial development programme delivered through the Business School’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Leading Velocity this year as CEO is Nandini Singh, a third-year Bachelor of Commerce student majoring in Finance and Economics.

Simran Kaur is one half of the team behind Girls That Invest, a podcast that unpacks the complexity of investing into easy to understand basics. How did someone who studied optometry as a University of Auckland student come to have the number one business podcast in the US, Canada and New Zealand?

Wayve are an autonomous mobility start-up who have pioneered a new machine learning approach to AV. Their innovative approach has won the confidence of investors such as Microsoft and Virgin, with their latest Series B round generating over $200 million in investment.

The University of Auckland’s UniBound academic enrichment programme is designed to help Māori and Pacific school leavers achieve a smooth transition into University life through practical workshops, team building activities and peer mentoring over the summer. As part of this year’s programme, students had the opportunity to take part in two creative workshops at Kura Matahuna (Unleash Space).