University of Auckland launches Venture Lab incubator
26 March 2018
The incubator will nurture new start-ups from University of Auckland staff and students by providing advice, funds, resources and a dedicated space to work on their fledgling businesses.
The University of Auckland is further championing student innovation and entrepreneurship by initiating a brand new incubator – Venture Lab.
This unprecedented initiative, delivered by the University’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE), is designed to support students and staff with a developed venture concept by further developing their capability and giving them the expertise, space and resources to fully ignite their ideas.
Over the course of six months, Venture Lab participants have access to a wealth of resources, including a board of advisers, a $10,000 stipend per team, further funds and university resources and dedicated desk space.
Venture Lab teams have been working in the Business School over the summer and now have their own room at the university’s new innovation hub, Unleash Space, where they can further work on their business.
A key component of the Venture Lab programme is the support of Venture Lab Manager Ken Erskine, who provides operational support and wisdom. Ken is a former director of startups at the ICEHOUSE, with a long history of working in the local and international startup ecosystems.
In its first iteration, the incubator is supporting five of the winning teams from the 2017 Velocity student entrepreneurship programme.
As Velocity participants, the cohort had already been through the process of developing a business case and validating their concept and are at the stage where they are well on their way to preparing their venture for launch.
We are so fortunate to be a part of the Venture Lab programme. The supportive mentorship and vital resources that we receive through this programme enable us to accelerate from an idea into a minimum viable product in just a few months.
The pace at which some of these teams have been operating is truly impressive. Kara Technologies Ltd is an online educational platform that aims to deliver educational material to deaf children using sign language avatars.
They have already attracted significant levels of investment from the University of Auckland Inventors Fund and have hired staff. They are now rapidly prototyping using state-of-the art equipment, such as a $20,000 Mocap suit that was able to be purchased through the support of the University.
Kara Technologies CEO Arash Tayebi says, “We plan to work with educational institutions and online material providers to become the Coursera for the hearing impaired.
"We are so fortunate to be a part of the Venture Lab programme. The supportive mentorship and vital resources that we receive through this programme enable us to accelerate from an idea into a minimum viable product in just a few months."
Director of the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Wendy Kerr, says that the provision of an incubator is an important evolution in the University’s student innovation and entrepreneurship offering.
“The University of Auckland has a long history of encouraging students to develop concepts, but there is more that can be done to help our students bridge the gap between venture concept and business reality. The creation of this incubator is an exciting next step.”