Print this page

Palmerston North brothers show out-of-this-world potential in tech sector

  • font size decrease font size decrease font size increase font size increase font size

Two Palmerston North brothers are looking to prove not even the sky is the limit for Māori in the tech industry.

Ian and Ben Tairea got their start with a win at Manawatū's Agritech Hackathon design competition last year, which resulted in a budding start-up company.

And over the past couple of weeks, the brothers split up to enter and win two separate hackathons on consecutive weekends – Ian at New Zealand's first Māori-focused hackathon in Gisborne and Ben at an international space technology competition in Christchurch.

Now, Ben is about to head to France to pitch his team's orbital-repair robot start-up to the European Space Agency.