The Rotorua business community is in for a great line-up of businesses and non-profits pitching at the Rotorua Pitch Night on 10 April.

Four organisations will pitch from a range of industries, including fin tech, e-commerce, educational aids, and a youth leadership programme asking for equity investment, lending investment or sponsorship.

Maria Ngawati is returning to pitch her company Indigishare again after pitching in 2021.

She is pitching a fin tech product Te Waharoa, a NZ designed web-based payment gateway.

Maria Ngawati - Indigishare. Photo supplied.

“Currently, payment processing is a 6 trillion-dollar industry. Most merchant and payment processing fees go to offshore banks.

“In addition it is a significant cost to businesses eating up their profits.

“We want to offer New Zealand businesses better payment processing rates as well as keeping the revenue in our country and our communities,” she says.

The Rotorua Pitch Night event aims to introduce businesses and non-profits to prospective investors.

It fosters an active local investor community in Rotorua.

The event is being run by Firestation, Rotorua X and Rotorua NZ.

Event Director Darren McGarvie says the event provided an important and much-needed platform for local businesses.

“Pitch Night has been developed to enable local organisations another avenue to fund their growth and raise their profile, whether that be equity investment, lending investment or philanthropic investment.”

“We are looking forward to an entertaining evening with a wide range of industries covered and a mix of equity, lending and sponsorship investment opportunities available.”

Other pitches on the night include Education STEM Kits from Ministry in Inspiration; e-commerce business The Mum Collections that Maori inspired designs for mum and baby items including bags, pods, blankets and swaddles; and NexGen Academy which has a unique youth leadership programme for year 12-13 students.

Each pitch has 15 minutes to compel potential investors to find out more. There will be an opportunity for an expert panel and the audience to ask questions after each pitch.

The audience is a mix of individual and corporate investors, pitch team supporters and event partner sponsors and members.

People interested in attending must register to attend to receive event details.

Audience registrations will be accepted until venue capacity is reached.

To register to attend go to www.firestation.nz/pitch-night