Program Overview

Introduction to UC FoundX

The University of Canterbury is proud of its spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship. Our alumni are testament to our UC culture of problem solving, creativity, and kiwi 'No 8 wire' mentality. It's part of our DNA and we love celebrating the success of our alumni.

Background

The Founders Pledge is an initiative that took shape in the United States and is growing into a global movement, spreading into the United Kingdom, Australia, and now, New Zealand. Several educational institutions, such as UC Berkeley and Dartmouth, have run very successful Founders Pledge programmes.

FoundX Ecosystem

The intention of FoundX is to build an entrepreneurial and innovative ecosystem for alumni to connect with current student entrepreneurs and the University in a meaningful way. Members of FoundX will have opportunities to engage in a range of activities such as:

• Coaching and mentoring entrepreneurial students
• Sharing expertise and experiences through guest presentations and workshops designed for students
• Events specifically for FoundX members to engage with students doing amazing things

UC FundX

Under the UC FundX initiative, UC has established a startup fund that enables our entrepreneurial Alumni to more directly support the next generation of UC's innovative and entrepreneurial students through the UC Foundation. FundX will appeal to entrepreneurial Alumni who want to have more involvement, engagement, and connection with the students their donation supports.

FoundX Pledgers

Some of our notable FoundX Pledgers include:

• Guy Horrocks, LLB, BCom, Solve Co-Founder
• James Powell, BE Hons Mechanical Engineering, Dawn Aerospace Co-Founder
• James Robertson, BE Mechatronics, Invert Robotics Founder and Head of Product Development
• Luke Campbell, BSc Physics, Economics, VXT Co-Founder
• Mark Rocket, Entrepreneur, innovator, and aerospace enthusiast, CEO Kea Aerospace

Join UC FoundX

We warmly invite you to join our UC FoundX Ecosystem. We hope you will become part of this network as a way to further support collaboration, innovation, and the sharing of pioneering ideas and resources within the University and out to the wider world.

Centre for Entrepreneurship

The Centre for Entrepreneurship offers various programmes and resources, including:

• UCE Disrupt
• Summer Startup
• INOV290
• UC FoundX
• About UCE
• Makerspace
• Clubs
• Support UCE
• ThincLab Canterbury
• Validator Challenge Series

UC FoundX Pledge

The UC FoundX Pledge is a loyalty programme designed to strengthen the connection between successful UC Alumni and entrepreneurial students at the University. It is an initiative that encourages UC Alumni entrepreneurs to pledge to support the next generation of innovative and entrepreneurial students.