Ackama's story
Ackama's story began in 2010 to design technology that makes a difference. Today, we deliver impact across Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific.
Ackama's story began in 2010 to design technology that makes a difference. Today, we deliver impact across Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific.
Our beginnings are rooted in two cities.
In Wellington, Breccan McLeod-Lundy started working as an independent contractor under the name Rabid Technologies. Around the same time in Melbourne, Will Dayble and Luke Giuliani set up Squareweave, building digital tools for social enterprises.
Both teams had similar ideas about what technology should do: support equity, improve access, and solve real problems. In the early days, Josh Forde joined Breccan through the Enspiral network, helping to grow the team and shape the values that still guide our work today.
By 2018, Rabid and Squareweave formally came together. The two companies merged under a single structure, and Rabid was renamed Ackama. Over time, Squareweave also transitioned to the Ackama brand, reflecting a shared identity across both countries.
Our name reflects the natural systems we aim to support. “Ackama” is taken from makamaka, a native tree found north of Whangārei. Like the ecosystems around us, our work is about long term health and resilience.
As we’ve grown, we’ve brought other like minded companies into the group. Each addition has helped us broaden our services while maintaining our focus on thoughtful, reliable delivery.
→ In 2020, we acquired Prefer, a New Zealand based digital agency with a strong focus on innovation and creative technology.
→ In 2023, we welcomed Common Code, a software agency known for human-centred product development and strong engineering practice.
→ In 2025, we acquired Optimal BI, strengthening our capability in data strategy, analytics and AI informed tools, imperative to advancing innovation capabilities.
Our integration of these teams has focused on aligning ways of working, not just systems and tools. This helps us build a consistent experience for our clients, wherever we work.
Our clients include government agencies, energy providers, for-purpose organisations and enterprises with a commitment to long term change. We support them by building and maintaining platforms, designing services that work for users, and providing strategic guidance on data, security and architecture.
We also invest in our own services, such as CodeCare, which manages operational support and monitoring for client platforms. This means we’re not only building technology, but helping ensure it stays safe, secure and available for the communities who rely on it.
We are continuing to grow our capabilities across the region. Our focus areas are government and energy, but we also work in health, social services and not-for-profit sectors. As we grow, we aim to create more opportunities for our teams and deepen our ability to support complex, meaningful work.
Our story is one of steady change, with a consistent aim to shape the world through pragmatic technology, designed for people.
Squareweave is now Ackama.
We've merged with New Zealand company Ackama!
We're excited to be working with our Kiwi colleagues to deliver ambitious, purposeful digital products on both sides of the Tasman.
Common Code is now part of Ackama.
We’re now part of Ackama, delivering purposeful technology across the Asia-Pacific.
Together, we’re creating impact across energy, government, international development, and beyond. Delivering pragmatic, innovative solutions where they matter most.