We’re pleased to have advised Hectre, a New Zealand-based orchard management and fruit sizing software company, on its recent $3.5 million capital raise.

The oversubscribed round included existing Enterprise Angels, Afterwork Ventures, and new investors WM Borton Investments, the investment arm of Borton Fruit, early adopter Count Maximilian Kolowrat-Krakowsky, and Ivan Seselj, founder of NZ SaaS company Promapp.

Hectre’s Orchard Management app enables fruit growers to digitize their orchard operations, reducing manual recording, wasted time and wasted fruit, with the aim of increasing operational efficiencies and overall business sustainability.

Their fruit sizing software, Spectre, uses AI to provide fast and accurate fruit size and colour estimations for growers and packers, both of which are critical considerations in the fruit industry.

Hectre was founded in 2016 and has grown to a team of 21. Hectre’s technology is now used in 11 countries including the US, Spain and South Africa.

With its new round of funding, the company intends to expand its team, grow its sales and marketing and customer success function, as well as invest in product development and innovation.

Partner Lee Bagshaw says of the deal, “New Zealand’s agritech sector is turning out some interesting innovation that the world is starting to recognise. It was a pleasure helping Hectre with their latest capital raise, and we can’t wait to see how they grow.”