Venture Lab is a six month incubator programme offered by the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE), designed to take your start-up to the next level.

This pre-seed programme provides tailored support, guidance, and resources to help you secure your first customers and prepare for early-stage investment.

Participants receive:

• Dedicated weekly mentoring and venture guidance
• Access to venture development funding upto $10,000 (upon milestone achievements)
• Workshops, specialist advice, and support to navigate the challenges of start-up success
• Connections with industry leaders, the entrepreneurial community, and potential investors
• Mental and physical space to develop and grow their ventures

Through Venture Lab, participants also receive guidance on accessing $40m of pre-seed capital through the University of Auckland Inventors’ Fund and the Momentum Investment Committee.

CIE’s programmes are free for University of Auckland students and staff. These co-curricular programmes help develop innovation and entrepreneurship skills alongside formal studies. While there are no formal assessments, participation may count towards the co-curricular recognition programme and the Distinguished Graduate Award.

When you join Venture Lab, you’ll become part of the vibrant CIE community, where we’ll:

• Connect you with mentors, successful start-up teams, and an extensive entrepreneurial network
• Provide access to educational resources that will challenge and develop your skills
• Support your potential by inspiring and guiding you on your entrepreneurial journey
• Enable your success by giving your start-up the tools to stand out, create value, and launch
  

The six -month incubator programme equips you with the tools, skills, and connections you need to grow your ventures.

Through the programme, teams will:

• Strengthen entrepreneurial capability across market validation, business models, funding and finance, market entry strategies, and pitching
• Develop effective governance, leadership, and resource management practices to support venture growth
• Identify target markets and engage with early-stage customers
• Explore commercial models and pathways to feasibility
• Develop prototypes, pilots, or other indicators of product-market fit
• Achieve tangible venture milestones, including customer validation and early traction
• Advance ventures toward pre-seed or proof-of-concept (POC) investment readiness.
  

We welcome ventures with growth potential across research commercialisation, technology, sustainability, creative industries, health, deep tech, and other innovation-led sectors.

Applications are open to early-stage venture teams led by current University of Auckland staff or students from all faculties and levels. Teams should demonstrate a strong commitment to actively developing and progressing their venture through the programme.

Teams may include external members, provided the lead applicant is a current staff member or student.

Venture Lab is a high-engagement programme designed for teams actively progressing their ventures, with an expected collective team commitment of approximately 40 hours per week.

The programme includes weekly mentor meetings, workshops, milestone presentations, and a final showcase event. Venture Lab runs from August 2026 to February 2027, with a six-week break over summer.  

Key programme dates

3 June 2026 – Applications open
9 July 2026 – Applications close at 11.59pm
22 July 2026 – Shortlisted teams pitch their venture to a panel of judges
Kick-off event: Wednesday 12 August 2026, 10am–2pm
Workshop 1: Thursday 3 September 2026, 4–6.30pm
Workshop 2: Thursday 24 September 2026, 4–6.30pm
Workshop 3: Thursday 8 October 2026, 4–6.30pm
Midway presentations: 27 October 2026, evening
Workshop 4: Thursday 19 November 2026, 4–6.30pm
Summer break: Mid-December 2026 to late January 2027 (six weeks over Christmas)
Workshop 5: Thursday 28 January 2027, 4–6.30pm
Final showcase event: 19 February 2027, evening

Ken Erskine

Ken Erskine is an experienced entrepreneur, investor and ecosystem builder with a long track record of supporting high-growth ventures in Aotearoa and internationally. He played a foundational role at The Icehouse, helping to establish one of New Zealand’s leading business incubators, and has been instrumental in developing key components of the country’s early-stage investment and commercialisation landscape. His expertise spans venture funding, incubation, and scaling technology-led businesses.

At Venture Lab, Ken works closely with student founders and early-stage teams, bringing strategic insight, investor perspective and practical discipline to the start-up journey. He supports ventures to sharpen their value proposition, strengthen their commercial pathways and build globally ambitious businesses grounded in strong execution. 

Andrew Steel

Andrew has over 20 years of experience working with start-ups across a broad range of industries. This includes full-time founder and senior leadership team roles, as well as directorships and advisory roles. He has supported the University of Auckland’s entrepreneurship programs for the last 15 years, through mentorship, judging, and guest lectures.

He is an active angel investor, investing directly into companies and via every Icehouse Ventures seed fund since inception. Several of his direct investments have come through University of Auckland channels including Kami, Biomatters, Strutfit, Zenno Astronautics, and Seascape Intelligence.

His business background extends beyond start-ups, including commercial roles in public and private companies with turnovers ranging from the ten’s to hundreds of millions of dollars. He is also a Chartered Director, holds a New Zealand Certificate in Financial Services, and completed an undergraduate degree in the fields of law and economics at Cambridge University. 

Applications open 3 June 2026. When preparing your venture plan, please refer to the Venture Lab entry process.

If you have questions about the programme, please contact cie_programmes@auckland.ac.nz

The Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship provides a world of opportunity to participants so that they can stand out and create value through innovative careers and start-up creation.

CIE is New Zealand’s leading University entrepreneurship centre, winning 14 international awards since 2020.