A
$30,000 gift from two former students will support
innovation and entrepreneurship at the University of
Auckland.
Thanks to two former students, a
new fund at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland, is
set to improve access to innovation and entrepreneurship
education.
The innovative alumni, Alliv Samson
(Bachelor of Arts) and Hengjie Wang (Bachelor of
Engineering), are gifting $30,000 through their family
office and investment fund, Hiraya
Ventures, to establish the Centre for Innovation and
Entrepreneurship (CIE) Alumni Fund.
The fund will
support the University’s start-up programme Velocity, and
other initiatives delivered by CIE, enabling more students
to pursue their startup ambitions at no cost.
Samson
and Wang are internationally recognised entrepreneurs. They
founded education technology company Kami, an all-in-one
platform designed to save teachers time and improve learning
outcomes, supporting over 70 million users across 180
countries.
Kami began in 2012 as a student project,
developed through the Velocity $100k Challenge. In 2022,
TIME named it one of the world’s most influential
companies following rapid growth and widespread classroom
adoption. In 2025, Wang and Samson won the EY Entrepreneur
of the Year.
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Drawing on this experience, the duo
established the CIE Alumni Fund to give back to the system
that supported their early success, providing a formal
pathway for like-minded alumni to reinvest in the programmes
that nurture Aotearoa’s next generation of
innovators.
Samson and Wang’s family office, Hiraya
Ventures, invests in early to growth-stage Kiwi companies
with global potential, combining capital with operational
experience. The name Hiraya, drawn from Filipino, reflects a
focus on enabling ambitious ideas to become
reality.
Samson, director at Hiraya Ventures, and
Chief Strategy Officer and co-founder of Kami, says: “One
of the main reasons Hengjie and I founded Hiraya Ventures
was to give back to the ecosystem that enabled Kami’s
growth.
“As Velocity provided the spark that turned
our student project into a global business, supporting the
University’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
was a no-brainer. It’s our way of ensuring the next
generation of ambitious Kiwi entrepreneurs have the support
they need to turn their boldest dreams into
reality.”
In 2025, CIE supported more than 8,000
individuals across its programmes and activities, with
demand continuing to grow across faculties and disciplines.
This scale reflects increasing interest in innovation-led
careers, as well as the role of co-curricular programmes in
helping students test ideas in practical settings.
The
CIE Alumni Fund introduces a mechanism to sustain and expand
that access with the initial $30,000 contribution
distributed over three years. It’s then structured to
receive future donations from other alumni and
supporters.
CIE Director Darsel Keane says the gift
signals a shift in how the University’s innovation
ecosystem is supported over time.
“We are deeply
grateful for this contribution, which establishes the
foundation for a fund that others can contribute to. It
creates a way for those who have benefited from innovation
and entrepreneurship at the University to support the next
generation coming through.
“The fund creates a
starting point for a more connected alumni network, where
experience, capital and mentorship can circulate back into
the University.”
The CIE Alumni Fund will begin
supporting programmes this year. As participation in
innovation and entrepreneurship continues to increase across
the University, it provides a mechanism to match that demand
with sustained
support.
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