A small Kiwi business that strives to expose underprivileged kids to the joys and wonder of science had its Auckland office ransacked overnight, leaving an upcoming national tour in jeopardy.

Nanogirl's Ponsonby office was broken into at 3am today by a man and a woman who stole a substantial amount of crucial equipment to the businesses theatre tour, including computer gear and cameras.

The thieves were caught on security camera, and Nanogirl's co-founder Dr Michelle Dickinson took to social media to publicise their identities.

"Last night this couple chose to visit our Nanogirl office in Ponsonby & take things important to our work," Dickinson posted.

"As a tiny social enterprise trying to do good in the world, being reunited with our property would be amazing so if you know these people could you ask them to give it back."

The theft has left Nanogirl's small team of staff scrambling to source the replacement technical scientific equipment necessary to their stage show.

Nanogirl co-founder Joe Davis said the business is scheduled to begin a national tour of New Zealand schools and communities in November, and the theft significantly hinders that, but they are determined to carry on.

"Yes I'm going to make sure it goes ahead," Davis said.

"Last year's tour we engaged 50,000 children around New Zealand over the course of a month. So this is huge project for us. There's no way we're going to let the kids of New Zealand down. We have a small team, they work bloody hard, they donate a huge amount of their time to the cause as well, and they're now going to have to work doubly hard because someone felt they could steal from us."

Davis said they are hoping to retrieve the stolen equipment, as a month is not long enough to source replacements for the November tour.

"Our best hope is to recover everything that's been stolen, or as much as we can. The police have been fantastic so far. Our security cameras got some pretty good shots of the offenders. We're hoping that leads to a speedy conclusion. Fingers crossed we can get some of the stuff back but we're having to plan on worst-case scenario and figure out how we're going to make the tour happen."

Davis said the Nanogirl team were "pretty cross and shaken up" after the burglary.

"Everyone's just deeply frustrated that people think it's okay to break in and steal and make our lives harder when we're doing everything we can to help children around New Zealand.

"The office is full of equipment that is critical to the show and finding a heap of it missing this morning certainly makes our life a lot harder."

Police said inquiries into the Fitzroy St burglary are ongoing.