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Business

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Does your innovation or business idea need a place to grow? If you're thinking of starting a business in New Zealand, getting connected is the best way to set yourself up for success.

In a city where businesses flourish, Ōtautahi Christchurch offers all of this, plus a strong economy, cheaper rents and access to talent from three world-class universities and five skills and technology campuses. 

Home to high-growth startups, the city’s startup eco-system is globally ranked in the top 250 cities and you can access tailor-made support that is dedicated to shaping your business and taking it past start mode.

Your door is wide open. Take your idea from go to grow in Ōtautahi Christchurch.

Take Your Business Idea To The Next Level

Te Ohaka

Early Stage Start-Up?

Early stages of business development can be tough and your growth potential needs support. Te Ōhaka offers this in many forms and could be a great fit for you. 

Ideally you'll already have a minimum viable product, fewer than five FTEs, less than $500,000 in investment, and revenue of less than $100,000. But there is wiggle room. Preferably, your business would be part of a Cluster.

Te Ōhaka and Ara also offer two courses on business innovation, validation and commercialisation. 

I'm an Early Stage Start-up - Te Ōhaka
HTK Meeting

HTK

HTK is a Māori organisation that specialises in working with indigenous cultures to build better futures through collaboration and support.

They work alongside businesses, corporates, hapū/iwi, institutions, not-for-profits, and startups, creating tailor-made, innovative, and dynamic solutions for businesses offering a full range of support services, capability building programmes and innovation incubators.

Find Out More About HTK
ThincLab Space

Past The Early Start-Up Stage?

If your business is past the early start-up stage, you will be better suited to ThincLab.

ThincLab, at the University of Canterbury, works with start-ups and scale-ups that have evidence of market validation and are operating as a business. You might be ready to export, grow, or land a first or second round of investment.

I’m Further Along but Still Need Support - ThincLab
Business Mentoring Young Graduate

Business Mentors

Business Mentors NZ is an independent, not-for-profit organization, committed to helping small business owners, startup entrepreneurs and not-for-profit decision makers succeed.  A small registration fee provides 12 months access to a Business Mentor, available to provide support by sharing skills, knowledge and understanding of what it takes to be successful. In Canterbury we have 300 Business Mentors who gift their time to assist our business owners.  

Register for a Mentor
Christchurch Business Events Team

Groups And Networks

Ōtautahi Christchurch has a vast array of business meetups and co-working spaces to help you get connected.
Discover Groups and Networks
There is so much that you don’t know that you don’t know and a mentor can really point you in the right direction of what you do need to know
Alice Brown, Resuscitation Matters

Accelerator Courses

Accelerate your business ideas. Download the brochure to find out more.

Business Accelerator
Learn to start, validate and commercialise your business ideas with this new, 10-week, hands-on course at Ara, delivered by Te Ōhaka.

Innovation Accelerator
Equip yourself with the tools and skills to identify and implement transformative innovation opportunities within an organisation or industry with this 10-week short course at Ara.

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