Arama Kukutai
Co-founder / Trustee
Ngāti Maniapoto, Tainui, Te Aupōuri
Arama Kukutai is a co-founder and partner at Finistere Ventures, one of the pioneering venture capital firms dedicated to Agritech, founded in 2006. Arama is also the CEO of Plenty, a Californian based agtech start-up that has raised over USD500m in venture capital and is leading technology development in indoor vertical farm growing.
Arama has been an investor, company founder and entrepreneur in the Agribusiness sector for over 20 years. He served as Executive Chairman of PKW Farms, a successful diversified investment entity involved in dairy farming and aquaculture activities in New Zealand, Asia and Australia.
Arama also led the New Zealand government’s Trade & Investment agency in North America, following which he emigrated to the USA. He has led the creation of Finistere’s global portfolio and network in AgTech which has offices in New Zealand, Tel Aviv, Israel, San Diego and Silicon Valley, and Dublin, Ireland.
He has been an active speaker, writer and thought leader in Agrifood sustainability and investment trends, including through Finistere’s partnership with PitchBook Data. Arama holds law and business/agronomy degrees from Victoria University, Wellington (NZ).