"What happens is you call on your crowd and as a giver, a kaikoha or a kaituku moni, you can put your money into a business of your choice, and then over time, that money is paid back to you," Ngawati said.
Indigishare advisory trustee Anahera Waru says she knows first hand the impact Covid has had on the indigenous economy, struggling tourism operators and whānau.
"We saw an extraordinary amount of businesses and whānau struggle as the world shut down," she said. "It became very apparent that an injection of some sort was needed to be able to revitalise the Māori economy.
"We are a very resilient people but the current economic structures or frameworks don't necessarily support what it is that we think we can do and the way that we operate.
"We know that Māori champion tikanga and we use that as a framework, and we immediately knew that there had to be a better way to be able to support some of the businesses to be able to get back up and running in the face of Covid."
Board member Rawiri Bhana is also the founder of Tautoko Māori, a website developed during lockdown with the catch-cry to "support, shop and spend Māori".
He says while Māori are great innovators, they often struggle to find financial support.
"Indigishare for us was a natural marrying-up for looking and finding these amazing Māori-owned businesses, who may not be able to make the next step or in some cases the first step."
The rōpū are calling on others to help with a PledgeMe campaign launching during Matariki.
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