Humankind buys The Mintable in management training deal

Humankind has acquired The Mintable's management training platform, adding an Australia-based leadership training product to the New Zealand consultancy's offering.

The Mintable is used by companies including Tracksuit, Sharesies, Lion Food and Beverage, and Notion. It will become part of Humankind's work with organisations on people, performance, and culture.

The acquisition combines Humankind's fractional people and culture advisory model with a structured management training platform. The combined business will continue supporting existing customers of both companies.

The deal comes as employers face pressure to improve the quality of frontline management. Research cited by Humankind suggests about 60% of first-time managers receive no formal training when they move into leadership roles, while Gallup research indicates managers account for around 70% of the variance in team engagement.

Humankind has worked with more than 1,300 organisations across New Zealand. It works alongside leadership teams as a fractional Head of People and Culture, with clients including Tracksuit, Projectworks, and Kernel.

Kalyn Ponti, chief executive of Humankind, said the purchase reflected a pattern the firm sees in growth companies.

"Good leadership has an outsized impact on an organisation's ability to perform," Ponti said. "People are often promoted into management roles because they're great at the work, then expected to lead others with little preparation for what that actually involves day to day. Eighty percent of this comes down to getting the fundamentals right: clarity on what success looks like, giving honest, timely feedback on progress, and balancing high care with high expectations. At Humankind, lifting leadership capability is a core part of the work we already do alongside executive teams. Acquiring The Mintable strengthens our ability to support our clients with this at scale."

The Mintable, which was backed by Blackbird Ventures before the transaction, focuses on practical management skills including setting expectations, establishing team rhythms, coaching, feedback, and difficult conversations.

Manager training

The platform was built around day-to-day management in modern and distributed workplaces. Its structure will now sit alongside Humankind's advisory work with leadership teams seeking to build more consistent management practices as they grow.

Lauren Humphrey, chief executive and co-founder of The Mintable, said the platform was designed to help managers build habits they can apply in everyday work.

"Managers are carrying more complexity than ever, and many are doing it for the first time," Humphrey said. "With The Mintable platform now part of Humankind's offering, organisations can combine structured management training with embedded people and culture expertise to build confident managers and stronger teams as they scale."

The transaction also extends Humankind's presence beyond New Zealand by adding an Australia-based platform with existing customers across the region. It gives the firm a product it can roll out across larger or more dispersed teams rather than relying only on embedded advisory work.

For companies operating across several markets, management consistency has become a bigger issue as teams expand and hybrid or distributed work becomes more common. The combined offering is aimed at businesses seeking a more formal approach to management development while keeping people and culture support close to executive teams.

Blackbird Ventures said the platform had already been used widely among companies in its network. It described the transaction as a way for the product to continue under new ownership while maintaining support for customers.

"Lauren, Melissa, and the team have had a real impact training managers across the Australian ecosystem and beyond, including leaders inside many of our own portfolio companies," said Michael Tolo, partner at Blackbird Ventures. "We're glad to see the platform continue under Humankind's stewardship."