The Next Phase for Kiwi Connect: Edmund Hillary Fellowship (EHF)
Dear friends of Kiwi Connect,
When we launched Kiwi Connect in 2014, our vision was to grow the New Zealand startup ecosystem and help it make a positive impact on the world.
My co-founders Matthew and Brian Monahan and I were excited by the fertile ground New Zealand provides as an Incubation Nation, to develop solutions that can transform industries and sectors and solve global challenges.
Weta Digital made New Zealand a leader in digital effects, Xero changed how small businesses do accounting, Lanzatech provided the world with clean biofuels capable of flying jets, Enspiral led experiments with forward-thinking systems for team collaboration, and Rocket Lab made Space more accessible. In areas where New Zealand had an existing talent base and put significant effort into innovating, it was often successful at creating world-class solutions.
We also identified that the ecosystem growth wasn’t matched with the necessary level of global connectivity for New Zealand to be internationally competitive. This connectivity is important in turning size and distance from what has been a disadvantage in more traditional industries, to a new advantage for innovation.
Since founding Kiwi Connect, we have focused on filling the gap to connect New Zealand with world-class talent, impact capital, and cutting edge innovation, so that NZ can create a critical mass of entrepreneurial activity within a thriving ecosystem. We started with more questions than answers, facilitating multi-disciplinary, global conversations on what it will take for New Zealand to lead in innovation.
As a result, Kiwi Connect gave birth to two initiatives: New Frontiers and the Edmund Hillary Fellowship (EHF).
New Frontiers is an annual gathering that attracts a highly diverse group of global and local innovation leaders, who convene to co-create integrated solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. Participants include entrepreneurs, filmmakers, technologists, government leaders, artists, farmers, activists, Māori leaders, investors, educators, philanthropists, and people with a passion to create positive impact from Aotearoa New Zealand. These conversations have resulted in new policies, investments, and collective action. Newly sparked connections have led to new collaborations across industry and geographic boundaries.
New Frontiers led to the creation of EHF and the Global Impact Visas, formed through a unique partnership between Kiwi Connect, the Hillary Institute for International Leadership, and the New Zealand Government. EHF is set up as a not-for-profit subsidiary of the Hillary Institute of International Leadership.
EHF is building a community of visionary entrepreneurs and investors to build and support high-impact ventures in New Zealand that create innovative solutions for global challenges. Up to 100 international and 20 New Zealand Fellows are selected each year for the3-year programme. International Fellows receive exclusive access to the Global Impact Visas. EHF is building a global network of mentors, investors, partners, and supporters to help Fellows pursue their mission.
The Kiwi Connect team has succeeded in creating a pathway for New Zealand to access impact capital and purpose-driven talent to solve global challenges. The public, private, and nonprofit partnership make this endeavour very strong.
We have a bold vision. We seek to honour the legacy of Sir Edmund Hillary of attempting to do the impossible, to aim high and bring new entrepreneurial leadership to the 21st Century. To do justice to this mission, EHF requires our full focus and attention.
For that reason, we have decided to put Kiwi Connect into hibernation for the next few years, and dedicate all our energy to helping EHF succeed.
Everything Kiwi Connect has built since its inception has led to this moment. The vision of helping New Zealand be an Incubation Nation for global solutions is best served through EHF. For that reason, all our efforts are now going into building the highest calibre EHF community possible, and providing an incredible experience for our Fellows. New Frontiers will continue as an annual gathering, in service to the EHF mission.
We encourage anyone who is interested in making a positive mark on the world from New Zealand to join the Edmund Hillary Fellowship community, either as an Fellowship applicant, a supporter or partner to the programme.
We’re not leaving Medium — you can still reach stories of impact and innovation from Aotearoa New Zealand on our Edmund Hillary Fellowship Publication.
There are a few other ways you can keep up to date:
- Check out the EHF website
- Express interest in EHF
- Sign up to our mailing list
- Follow us on Facebook
- Join our EHF Facebook group
- Join our LinkedIn Group
- Have a conversation with us on Twitter
- Subscribe on YouTube to get inspired with over 200 videos of innovation in action
If you’re still interested to find out about Kiwi Connect, you can check out our lean info page here.
We are excited to leverage all the lessons and infrastructures that Kiwi Connect built to nurture the growth of EHF, the same way that the compost in a forest offers fertile soil for new growth.
The incredible team behind Kiwi Connect is joining the EHF team, including Alina Siegfried, Tai Kenning, Lauren Peate, and Alex Novak. I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to additional individuals who were part of the Kiwi Connect journey in various capacities and played crucial roles to help us get here: Rebecca Mills, Charlotte Hayes, Sam Johnson, Shannon Royster, Gemma McIver, and Kimberley Gilmour. And we are very grateful for you, our partners, followers and friends, who have supported us on this journey.
Kiwi Connect has had a fantastic ride in its current form, and I am grateful for all the amazing lessons and connections along the way. Looking ahead at the potential of the Edmund Hillary Fellowship and our growing team, I am excited to continue to serve Aotearoa New Zealand and help it be a global leader for impact-driven entrepreneurship and innovation.
Arohanui katoa,
Yoseph Ayele, Director
Are you a visionary entrepreneur or investor building solutions to global problems? You can bring your vision to reality from New Zealand by joining the Edmund Hillary Fellowship community. Express interest here.
