A cleantech start-up that grew out of a University of Auckland product accelerator has foundered.
Liquidators were appointed this month to Hydroxsys and its holding company after efforts under voluntary administration to find a buyer to take over and scale its membrane-filtering technology failed.
The first report by BDO’s Iain Shepherd and Jessica Kellow says creditors were owed $3.1 million, but the value of assets – aside from $44,552 in bank accounts – was withheld on a “confidentiality basis” while efforts were made to realise them.
Founded in 2012, liquidators said Hydroxsys claimed to have “patented membrane filtration technology that delivered meaningful environmental benefits for industrial wastewater processes”.
The Companies Office register records Hydroxsys as being backed by a number of well-known venture capital investors: Sir Stephen Tindall’s K1W1 (7.94%), Icehouse Ventures (4.35%) and Aspire NZ Seed Fund (4.08%) are listed as shareholders in the holding company.
Many of these investors had come on board more than a decade ago. Reports from 2014 said the company had raised $2.1m in seed funding, followed by another $3m in 2023.
Shepherd and Kellow’s report says employees were owed $80,975, but an ongoing Employment Relations Authority case was likely to see another $110,501 added to this.
The earlier effort to find a solution through voluntary administration comes into sharp focus when assessing the sums owed to Inland Revenue, the single largest creditor.
The taxation authority is owed $1.76m, but the bulk of this ($1.74m) relates to R&D tax credits, which crystallised into a liability once liquidation occurred.
The liquidators’ report also records a $409,862 loan is owed to the recently shuttered government-funded Callaghan Innovation.
The secured creditor, recorded in securities filings as BNZ, is owed $428,174.
The company’s website, which is still live, says: “Founded by engineers and scientists, and tested and proven by leading food processors and exporters, Hydroxsys is a privately-owned New Zealand company with headquarters, manufacturing, and research and development facilities in Auckland, New Zealand.”
Matt Nippert is an Auckland-based investigations reporter covering white-collar and transnational crimes and the intersection of politics and business. He has won more than a dozen awards for his journalism – including twice being named Reporter of the Year – and joined the Herald in 2014 after having spent the decade prior reporting for business newspapers and national magazines.
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