Tolaga

What Tolaga does

Tolaga, operating as the Tolaga Evergreen Fund, is a New Zealand-based financial inclusion and entrepreneurship support organisation founded in 2022 by Scott Miller and an Edmund Hillary Fellowship affiliation, alongside Co-founder Lily Stender. The organisation provides 5% interest-bearing seed loans to Māori and Indigenous entrepreneurs for the purchase of equipment and tools required to launch or grow essential service businesses — categories such as painting, plumbing, landscaping, cleaning, roofing, carpentry, electrical, and building trades. All loan repayments are recycled into the fund for re-lending, producing an evergreen capital structure where interest income is the only recurring revenue stream.

The product bundle pairs the loan with wrap-around business development services: a two-day training course covering finance, sales, marketing, and customer service; connection with bookkeepers for monthly financial reporting; and quarterly mentoring meetings with Tolaga advisors. Tolaga selects specifically for "essential" service categories — non-discretionary trades with durable consumer demand — on the stated rationale that these businesses carry higher survival rates. The underlying technology stack is minimal: the website runs on Squarespace, there are no APIs, SDKs, AI components, or proprietary software features, and the organisation is explicitly characterised as a financial inclusion entity rather than a technology company.

Tolaga is structured as a private, founder-led initiative developed in collaboration with Tolaga Bay Innovation, which supplies operational infrastructure and East Coast community connections. The known team comprises three people (Founder Scott Miller, Co-founder Lily Stender, Operations Manager Kuini Tuapawa). Distribution is direct via the tolaga.org website and community outreach, with approximately 25 named small business customers operating across New Zealand regions from Northland to Southland. No institutional funding, parent entity, or revenue figures have been disclosed.

Name

Tolaga

Legal name

Tolaga

Website

https://tolaga.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2022

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Tolaga is a New Zealand financial inclusion organisation that provides 5% interest-bearing seed loans and wrap-around business support — training, mentoring, bookkeeping — to Māori and Indigenous entrepreneurs starting essential service businesses, with repayments recycled into an evergreen fund.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Microfinance and Small Business Lending

akta.pro primary industry

SBA/Government-Backed & Development Finance Loans (FSAKAGAI)

Keywords

• Microfinance lending
• Indigenous entrepreneurship
• Small business loans
• Business training services
• Evergreen fund lending

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Seed Loan Interest: Capital in the form of a 5% interest bearing loan. All payments go back to the evergreen fund, to be loaned back out to other entrepreneurs. The loan is used to purchase equipment and other tools of the trade.

Pricing tiers

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels1 record

Core offering

Tolaga provides 5% interest-bearing seed loans to Maori and Indigenous entrepreneurs to purchase equipment and tools of trade for essential service businesses (painters, landscapers, plumbers, electricians, cleaners, etc.). It bundles the loan with a two-day business training course covering finance, sales, marketing, and customer service; quarterly mentoring sessions with Tolaga advisors; and a bookkeeper connection for monthly financial reports. All loan repayments are recycled back into the evergreen fund to be loaned out to other entrepreneurs.

Product overview

Tolaga operates as a unified support ecosystem for Maori and indigenous service business owners, consisting of the Evergreen Fund (5% interest-bearing loans for equipment and tools), paired with wrap-around business support services including a two-day training course covering finance/sales/marketing/customer service, quarterly mentoring sessions with Tolaga advisors, and bookkeeping integration for monthly financial reporting. The fund is evergreen in nature — all loan repayments cycle back into the fund for relending to other entrepreneurs. The organization focuses exclusively on essential service businesses (painters, landscapers, plumbers, electricians, etc.) that have durable, non-discretionary consumer demand.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Tolaga Evergreen Fund (Seed Loan) A 5% interest-bearing seed loan product for Maori and Indigenous entrepreneurs to purchase equipment and tools of trade for essential service businesses; all loan payments cycle back into the fund for reinvestment in other entrepreneurs.
• Business Training Course A two-day business training course for aspiring and current Maori/Indigenous service business owners, covering finance, sales, marketing, and customer service fundamentals.
• Mentoring Program Quarterly advisory meetings between enrolled entrepreneurs and Tolaga advisors to review financial results, discuss current challenges, and identify growth opportunities; more frequent engagement can be arranged.

Quantifiable outcome

• Service businesses have inherent customer demand which increases odds of success

Named customers26 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Tolaga Bay InnovationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration between Tolaga Bay Innovation and Edmund Hillary Fellow Scott Miller enabled the creation of the Tolaga Evergreen Fund. Tolaga Bay Innovation provides the operational infrastructure and community connections for supporting indigenous entrepreneurs.
• Edmund Hillary Fellow Scott MillercoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerScott Miller, an Edmund Hillary Fellow, co-founded Tolaga and brings expertise in entrepreneurship development. He is passionate about sharing the opportunity of entrepreneurship with people that may not have access to business tools and capital.

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Direct peers

• Good Shepherd Microfinance: Australia/NZ microfinance provider offering no- and low-interest loans and financial capability support to people on low incomes. Closely comparable in micro-lending model, community-based delivery, and wrap-around financial coaching approach.
• Māori Women's Development Inc (MWDI): Provides loans, grants, and business development support specifically to Māori women entrepreneurs in Aotearoa New Zealand. Directly comparable in target segment, product (micro-loans plus wrap-around support), and mission of Indigenous economic empowerment.

Broad incumbents

• Kiva: Global crowdfunded microfinance platform providing 0% interest loans to underserved entrepreneurs. Comparable in micro-lending to undercapitalized small business owners, but operates globally via a marketplace model rather than a single evergreen fund.
• Te Puni Kōkiri: New Zealand government ministry focused on Māori development, including economic and business capability programs. Comparable in serving the same Indigenous target segment, but operates as a broad policy and funding body rather than a direct micro-lender.
• Kiwibank: New Zealand state-owned bank with community-focused lending products, including small business and rural banking. Comparable as a NZ-domiciled financial institution with a community-development mandate, but operates at vastly larger scale across all customer segments.

Regional players

• Pacific Business Trust: Supports Pacific peoples in starting and growing businesses in New Zealand, including business advisory and access to capital. Comparable in targeting an underserved ethnic/Indigenous community for business support, but focused on Pacific rather than Māori entrepreneurs.

Emerging players

• Ākina Foundation: New Zealand social enterprise support organization providing capability development and impact investment intermediation. Comparable in mission-driven support of community enterprises, but focuses on social enterprise more broadly than Indigenous microenterprise.

Others

• Foundation North: Auckland region community foundation providing grants to grassroots and Māori-led organizations. Comparable as a capital provider to Indigenous and community initiatives in NZ, though it operates via grant-making rather than loan recycling.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Tolaga