Poutama Trust
Poutama is an independent charitable trust established in 1988 to provide business development services to Māori. Poutama strives to create an environment for successful business ventures and economic growth for Māori. Income generated from its investments enables Poutama to engage in activities and provide services that support and facilitate Māori business development.
Poutama was proud to partner with MBIE to deliver the Poutama ki te taumata: Accelerating Māori enterprise development programme
The programme utilised $5 million from the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) and made this pūtea/funding available to existing regional Pakihi Māori/Māori business across Aotearoa New Zealand.
The funding support was for capital investment to increase productivity, increase job numbers and allow businesses to invest in regional economic development initiatives like construction and infrastructure.
Given the economic impacts of COVID-19, the programme had a strong focus on supporting enterprises that created new jobs, and in turn positively contributed to local and regional community resilience.
Investment support
Poutama takes a flexible approach to how we can use our funding to invest into a business. The key thing we look for is how the funding will help develop and grow a business over and above what we consider ‘business as usual’ activities.
Ideally, Poutama would like to see your business in action and get a good understanding of the key business issues and challenges you face. If possible, we’re more than happy to visit your business or talk with you virtually, on the phone, via email or through our social media channels.
Once we have a good understanding of your business we can then better determine how Poutama’s investment services can best assist to meet your business aspirations. Sometimes this may mean applying our investment services in a way that wasn’t initially envisioned. However, it is important to keep in mind that Poutama’s investment into your business is of a limited amount. Given this, we want to ensure that the investment is applied in a way that will be of maximum benefit to your business.
Poutama is reasonably flexible on the types of activities we can support. The main thing for you to be aware of is how a grant will positively impact and help grow your business. Poutama will work alongside you to ensure that both your investment and our investment are used for maximum benefit for your business. Given that demand on Poutama’s investment services often exceeds our ability to supply, you need to consider carefully how Poutama’s investment services can help. We encourage you to make contact with us to explore possibilities.
Regional business partner support
The Regional Business Partner (RBP) Network is funded through the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and Callaghan Innovation and delivered by Poutama Trust to Māori businesses across the country.
Poutama may be able to help connect your business with a range of business support services, including mentors, capability development training, research & development programmes.
For more information please email poutama@poutama.co.nz or visit the RBP website.
