Officers with AFMA (the Australian Fisheries Management Authority), Starboard's first customer across the Tasman.
Officers with AFMA (the Australian Fisheries Management Authority), Starboard's first customer across the Tasman.
A Wellington startup that helps authorities and security teams track illegal fishing, trans-national crime and biosecurity threats has raised $5 million in seed funding.
Starboard Maritime Intelligence takes data collected from satellite networks and then feeds it into its cloud software to give customers a real-time view of shipping, processingmore than 4000 vessel positions a second.
Earlier adopters in New Zealand include Customs, MPI, NZTA Waka Kotahi and the Department of Conservation, as well as various clients in Australia and the Pacific Islands.
Chief executive Trent Fulcher - an Idaho native who has been in NZ since 2013 after marrying a Kiwi - says the funds will go toward an expansion into North America and elsewhere offshore. The firm also wants to build on its recent expansion into the private sector.
A MIMRA (Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority) enforcement officer using Starboard's cloud-based software.
The firm’s 25 staff, scattered around NZ, have developed machine-learning algorithms to process millions of data points per day. “They’re not true AI learning models yet, but we’ve built the tools, all in-house,” Fulcher said.
The new funds will be used, in part, to hire another five staff over the next few months, who will be on the sales side and located in potential new markets.
Lower than initial target
The firm actually set out to raise $8m, kicking off its effort in January last year.
“But then we entered a horrible capital market,” Fulcher told the Herald. High interest rates had many venture capital firms batten down the hatches, drying up funds for all-comers.
Fulcher said the lower haul of $5m, announced today, was partly a function of the tighter capital market – but also because Starboard signed two major new contracts, reducing the amount it needed to raise from outside.
One was NZ border security, the other an un-named multinational firm that will use Starboard’s platform to monitor an international cable system.
Fulcher sees such asset protection as a major new market.
While satellite and marine surveillance systems are proliferating, Fulcher says Starboard offers its clients a unique mix of real-time information about a ship - such as whether it makes an unsanctioned port call or takes a shortcut through pirate-infested waters - “and a five-year history, building a pattern for a vessel’s behaviour”.
Starboard Maritime Intelligence chief executive Trent Fulcher had a career in banking (including a stint as head of strategy for Kiwibank) before a "tracking stuff" phase that had him become CEO of AirShare - Airways' drone flight-tracking hub.
“Insurance and finance funders need more clarity about risks en route,” he said.
Starboard also promises to help clients with “unpicking complicated vessel ownership structures” and “identifying potential indicators of IUU [illegal, unreported and unregulated] fishing ... like when vessels meet at sea to move fish” as “on-water behaviour is blended with off-water ownership to identify high-risk vessels”.
The new shareholders
The $5m seed round was led by Altered Capital, an Auckland-based VC firm peppered with ex-Jarden staff. Its previous investments included Jamie Beaton’s Crimson and proof-of-origin startup Oritain.
It was supported by four other local players: Icehouse Ventures, Invest South, Soul Capital, and Whakatupu Aotearoa Foundation, plus the US-based SeaAhead.
A January 19 Companies Office update lists Altered Capital as now the largest Starboard shareholder with a 40 per cent stake.
Starboard's platform can be used to identify suspicious behaviour, and then track the offending vessel.
Xerra Earth Observation Institute - the South Island space data outfit from which Starboard was spun out - holds a 33 per cent stake with others all sub-10 per cent.
Fulcher said that as social-impact investors, Soul and Whakatupu (a philanthropic trust established in 2020, the trustees of which include Geof Nightingale and Glen Tupuhi) made a good fit for Starboard, which he describes as an “impact company” for its role in helping to protect oceans.
An employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) was expanded as part of the raise, he said.
Members of Starboard's 25-strong team, who are usually scattered around NZ.
The round took Starboard’s total funding to $6.2m, following a wholesale round via crowdfunding platform Snowball Effect.
Documentation posted with the Snowball offer forecasts $1.7m in revenue this year. Fulcher said the firm was now tracking to $2m.
The aim is to get into the black by next year. A gross profit of $5.1m on revenue of $12.9m is projected for 2026.
“Our heritage is government contracts, but we’ll be aggressively going after commercial markets,” Fulcher said.
Altered Capital partner Craig Mawdsley said the global maritime surveillance market was predicted to reach $67 billion by 2030. It would be driven by a need for more global collaboration.
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.
