National Flex Discovery Fund

Briony designed and industry-tested the criteria for the first competitive grant funding pool offered by Ara Ake. The $1m fund offered targeted grant funding to:

• Help flexibility providers become discoverable on an open-access flexibility platform.

• Support providers already visible on such platforms to scale or enhance the capacity or reliability of their flexibility resource.

• Software development support to businesses engaged in flexibility services helping to grow the flexibility market. 

The fund was heavily oversubscribed. The first round allocated over $500,000 to 13 innovative flexibility businesses.

The outcome of the second round is underdetermined as the NZ Cabinet decided as part of Budget 2026 to cease Crown funding for Ara Ake, from 1 July 2026.