Hectre has won two honours at the NZ Hi-Tech Awards, taking out Most Innovative Hi-Tech Agritech Solution and Hi-Tech Kamupene Māori o te Tau.
The New Zealand-founded fruit technology business was recognised at the national technology awards in Auckland, which drew more than 1,200 people from across the country's technology sector.
Hectre develops tools for fruit packhouses and growers, with systems used in 22 countries. Its software uses machine learning and computer vision to assess fruit size and colour in real time, while its Arc camera scans produce at intake instead of relying on manual sampling.
The wider fresh produce supply chain loses an estimated USD $80 billion a year through inefficiency, according to the company. Hectre positions its products as a way to give growers and packhouses more accurate information earlier in the handling process.
Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder Matty Blomfield said the awards reflected both the scale of the problem the business was trying to address and the values behind it.
"Nature gives us everything for free. But about a third of the world's fresh produce never reaches you. It rots, gets repacked, gets dumped. And the growers who did the work see the least of the return. The system is broken. Hectre exists to help solve it. Hectre's technology rebalances the food supply chain and shifts value back to the people closest to the land," Blomfield said.
The Māori Company of the Year award also carried personal significance for Blomfield, who has whakapapa to Ngāti Kahungunu and Ngāti Hine. He said the recognition reflected values including whanaungatanga, rangatiratanga, kōkiri and manaaki, anchored by pono.
In his acceptance speech, Blomfield linked the company's work to the country's agricultural heritage.
"We're a nation with ag in our DNA. So as a nation, we have earned the right to compete here on a global stage," he said.
Hectre said its Arc camera can assess sample sizes about 200 times larger than traditional methods and achieve near-99 per cent accuracy. It said this approach replaces manual checks at intake and gives packhouses a broader view of incoming fruit quality.
That matters in an industry where small differences in quality, ripeness and consistency can affect how fruit is sorted, packed and sold. Larger, faster sampling can help operators reduce waste, improve packout decisions and spot issues earlier in the process.
Recent funding
The awards come after Hectre closed a Series A funding round worth USD $12 million, above an initial USD $10 million target. The new capital is being directed towards hyperspectral imaging to identify fruit defects and assess maturity at packhouse scale, according to the company.
Its customers include operators of large packhouses in South America, the United States and Europe. Hectre said those users have reported higher output and lower food waste from using its systems.
The business sits within a growing group of agritech companies applying imaging and artificial intelligence to food production and handling. Investors have increasingly backed businesses that say they can reduce waste in global food supply chains while improving returns for growers.
For New Zealand, the result also underlines the weight of agricultural technology within the domestic innovation sector. The Hi-Tech Awards are widely seen as one of the country's main showcases for export-focused technology businesses.
Blomfield used his final remarks to thank staff, customers and family.
"These awards belong to our entire Hectre team. We wouldn't be here without 10 years of hard mahi, our early customers, my whānau and the entire Hectre team, kia ora. We don't say it every day, but we are a Māori-led company and I am damn proud," he said.