Ag-tech Hectre opens $5m lab to develop its AI-powered, hyperspectral fruit-scanning

Hectre's co-founder Matty Blomfield tells Herald NOW Business how it went from orchards to awards. Video| Herald NOW Business

Auckland ag-tech firm Hectre has already carved out a global market for its Arc overhead scanner, which scans fruit on open-top trucks as they enter a packhouse.

In near real time, Arc’s AI vision camera captures colour, size and external defect data, then feeds it to a software dashboard.

Now, Hectre (pronounced “Hectare”) is giving Arc new tricks.

Later today, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay will open the start-up’s new $5 million lab on the outskirts of Auckland’s CBD, where Hectre has taken over the building neighbouring its corporate HQ.

Hectre's Arc scans fruit in open trucks as the loads arrive, automating a process that usually happens at a selective scale inside a packhouse.

There, Hectre is developing new Arc sensors that capture internal defects, starch content and firmness via hyperspectral imaging, or by hitting a piece of fruit with light at different wavelengths (many beyond what the human eye can perceive), then measuring what’s reflected back.

Hectre is covering 60% of the cost of the lab and its three-year research project, founder and chief executive Matty Blomfield (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Hine) says. The other 40% is funded by the Government through the Ministry for Primary Industries’ Primary Sector Growth Fund.

Hectre's Matty Blomfield (left), Timea Ignat, Sebastian Webb and Brett McAlpine.

In February, Arc raised $12m in a Series A venture capital round led by Lance Wiggs’ Punakaiki Fund, which now holds a 13% stake.

Hectre’s current system is used by packhouses in 22 countries, scanning billions of pieces of fruit each year, with accuracy approaching 99% from samples some 200 times larger than manual methods allow, Blomfield says.

The Arc scanner currently captures data on size, colour and external defects. An upgrade will give it the smarts to measure internal defects, starch and firmness.

Customers include Borton Fruit in Washington state in the US (also a 9% shareholder in Hectre), Spain’s Verfrut and Italy’s VOG.

Blomfield says cherry producers in Chile have also emerged as a major market.

His start-up’s point of difference for its current tech is that it scans fruit before it enters a packhouse. Its pending internal quality scanning will be automated and en masse, whereas packhouses today typically measure small samples manually.

“It could be 10 pieces of fruit for a 150,000 batch,” Blomfield says.

Hectre, which earlier won an Agtech Breakthrough Award for its work with Hawke’s Bay-based Rockit Global, is working with various top-tier local apple producers as it trials Arc upgrades, Blomfield says.

The firm has always used AI machine learning and algorithms for its scanners’ operation.

The lab and a three-year research project are costed at $5 million, with Hectre covering 60% of the cost and a Ministry for Primary Industries innovation fund covering the balance.

Now, it’s using artificial intelligence to create its products, too.

“We’ve now got 10 times as many features as in January with the same size team,” Blomfield says.

“That is due to AI.”

Hectre co-founder and chief executive Matty Blomfield (centre) with customers in Washington state in the US.

The new lab programme targets a proof-of-concept algorithm with at least 80% detection accuracy by June 2027, and a packhouse prototype validated under commercial conditions by June 2028.

The firm hasn’t released any financials, but Blomfield says his aim is to hit $100m in revenue and a $1 billion valuation within five years.

Data from trucks pulled up under a Hectre Arc overhead scanner appears in near real-time.

Arc is one half of his master plan. The other is what the founder calls a “Bloomberg terminal for fruit selling”; an online platform trading AI data from his company’s systems, which will “move the balance of power back to fruit producers”. For now, details are under wraps.

Hectre won two categories at the 2026 Hi-Tech Awards, taking Most Innovative Hi-Tech Agritech Solution, sponsored by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, and Hi-Tech Kamupene Māori o te Tau, Māori Company of the Year. The company was a finalist in three categories.

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.