If Ben Scales had one harakeke leaf for every time his company KiwiFibre was featured in Forbes, he'd have enough fibre to make a snowboard.
(That's two harakeke leaves).
The first was the Forbes Asia 100 to Watch List in 2024, and now Ben and his business partner William Murrell have been recognised on the prestigious 30 Under 30 Asia list.
Ben and William met at the University of Otago while studying degrees in Industrial Product Design, and KiwiFibre began in 2020 when a prompt for a group project inspired them to explore the possibilities of native harakeke as a sustainable alternative to carbon fibre and fibreglass.
By 2023, KiwiFibre had raised $1.5 million from investors. Two years later, that number has grown to $5m.
Harakeke is extremely strong and robust, containing not only fibre, but gels, oils and other extracts that can be used to make a variety of products.
So far, KiwiFibre have produced race cars and snowboards, experimented with car bumpers and they've even tried their hand at crafting pale ale using harakeke oil.
William Murrell and Ben Scales - cofounders of KiwiFibre Innovations Photo: Supplied
