Tech startup helping labour-starved hort sector to test overseas market appetite
Originally published in
The New Zealand Herald
February 28, 2022
A software startup cashing in on the logic that a booming New Zealand sector with a critical labour shortage needs to help the workers it has be as productive as possible, is now eyeing Australian and US markets.
Tatou Technologies app helps ensure horticulture workers on "piece rates" are paid accurately.
Customers include listed kiwifruit producer Seeka, kiwifruit and avocado business Trevelyan's, Timberlands and US Fortune 500 beer, wine and spirit producer Constellation Brands.
Tatou already has a foot in the door in Australia, but is looking to expand its presence there, said chief executive Sidney Mazzi.
Also planned is a capital raising - in the second half of this year.
Mazzi declined to say how much the company wants to raise but said it was "very selective" about its investors.
"We receive requests to invest but will be talking to people who can help our objectives which is expanding into Australia."
In a world awash with emerging apps, Tatou's principals say the software, rolled out slowly since its development in 2017 for grape, kiwifruit, hops, avocado and other crop businesses, stands out from the rest because its aim is to lift productivity - by focusing on managing and helping people in the field.
The app has also found a home with farm and forestry users.
Horticulture production, now valued at more than $10 billion, earned New Zealand $6.6b in 2020, up 7 per cent on the previous year. The sector has been hard hit by the pandemic cutting off its access to imported skilled workers under the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme, and backpacker labour.
Mazzi and Tatou co-founder and app designer Aimee Jay say while the partial resumption of the RSE scheme has provided some relief, the biggest challenge for the sector is productivity.
They say the app is a tool for both employers and workers. Data inputted in the field can be used by employers, managers and administrators to better utilise teams of workers, make decisions, adapt systems, plan ahead and identify where training is needed.
Workers can check their daily achievement, if they are "piece" workers and ensure they're being paid correctly, and track skills development.
Concern his payslip wasn't always accurate was a strong initiative for Jay's cousin and company co-founder Aaron Jay to launch the Tatou app.
Aaron Jay, who owns 78.6 per cent of the startup, spent many years working in forestry and vineyards and was frustrated that he needed a notepad and pen to record every tree or vine he pruned. "Per piece" is the most common way people are paid in horticulture. He also wasn't confident his payslip was always accurate.
After establishing his own contracting business Hortus, he got talking to his cousin Aimee, a user experience designer newly arrived from the UK to study at Victoria University.
Aimee Jay saw that the main issue for growers with workers in the field was that it was difficult to effectively and accurately track activity. Reliance on pen and paper risked wrongly capturing information and lost production time through having to manually input data.
The key to a successful platform was it had to be very easy to use, she said.
And because the horticulture sector is multicultural, language couldn't be a barrier. Many people in the supply chain had to access the data. It had to be 100 per cent reliable.
Brazilian chief executive Mazzi said because horticulture is experiencing rapid growth, companies can have growing pains, made more challenging by lack of data to help managers decide where to invest.
When growers are managing a lot of paper, while trying to comply with the law, they lose a lot of productivity as they grow.
"Almost no training is required to use it (the app) so there's almost no resistance to using it. We see crew members being promoted to supervisors - not because of their computer skills but because it helps growers to pick the best leaders," he said.
"It helps grow trust between grower and worker and so reduces worker turnover. Altogether, these features increase productivity."
Aimee Jay said the employee portal on the app includes employment agreements and any documentation such as medical and Covid vaccine records that workers need to keep at hand.
The company employs six full-timers. Aimee Jay holds 12 per cent of the shares and Mazzi is a small shareholder.
He declined to discuss revenue for commercial reasons. He will only say "millions" of dollars have been invested in developing and commercialising the app, which really only came on the market's radar about 18 months ago.
While the company cites Callaghan Innovation as a partner, it has received no grants from the innovation agency, he said.
Instead it's one of the 10 startups selected for Callaghan's Scale for Global Growth programme.
Lead for the programme Nicky Molloy said Tatou was selected as "an ambitious agritech business focused on solving both local and global challenges for the horticulture and viticulture sector".
"Tatou has a simple digital solution for labour challenges for the agritech sector, and they work collaboratively alongside growers. They have successfully commercialised their product in Aotearoa and are now exploring new global opportunities, so they're a great candidate to join this programme which focuses on helping Kiwi businesses achieve global growth," she said.
App customers Seeka and Trevelyan endorsed the product when the Herald called, saying it had proved very helpful to their businesses.
Tatou's aim is to help people, say the principals.
Aimee Jay: "The fact it's easy to use means we are capturing data in real time.
"A lot of software out there is more about the produce - not about the people. With paper you can be waiting a long time, weeks or months, to answer a very simple question like 'are we on time?', 'are we on budget?'
"This is able to tell you day to day exactly where you are."
Originally published in The New Zealand Herald
February 28, 2022
