{"id":642319,"date":"2026-10-27T01:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T01:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/642319\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T01:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T01:24:10","slug":"ag-tech-hectre-opens-5m-lab-to-develop-its-ai-powered-hyperspectral-fruit-scanning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/642319\/","title":{"rendered":"Ag-tech Hectre opens $5m lab to develop its AI-powered, hyperspectral fruit-scanning"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s reflected back.<\/p>\n

Hectre is covering 60% of the cost of the lab and its three-year research project, founder and chief executive Matty Blomfield (Ng\u0101ti Kahungunu, Ng\u0101ti Hine) says. The other 40% is funded by the Government through the Ministry for Primary Industries\u2019 Primary Sector Growth Fund.<\/p>\n

\"Hectre'sHectre’s Matty Blomfield (left), Timea Ignat, Sebastian Webb and Brett McAlpine.<\/p>\n

In February, Arc raised $12m in a Series A venture capital round led by Lance Wiggs\u2019 Punakaiki Fund, which now holds a 13% stake.<\/p>\n

Hectre\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe 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.<\/p>\n

Customers include Borton Fruit in Washington state in the US (also a 9% shareholder in Hectre), Spain\u2019s Verfrut and Italy\u2019s VOG.<\/p>\n

Blomfield says cherry producers in Chile have also emerged as a major market.<\/p>\n

His start-up\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt could be 10 pieces of fruit for a 150,000 batch,\u201d Blomfield says.<\/p>\n

\" Hectre’s new lab in central Auckland.<\/p>\n

Hectre, which earlier won an Agtech Breakthrough Award for its work with Hawke\u2019s Bay-based Rockit Global, is working with various top-tier local apple producers as it trials Arc upgrades, Blomfield says.<\/p>\n

The firm has always used AI machine learning and algorithms for its scanners\u2019 operation. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe 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.<\/p>\n

Now, it\u2019s using artificial intelligence to create its products, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve now got 10 times as many features as in January with the same size team,\u201d Blomfield says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is due to AI.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HectreHectre co-founder and chief executive Matty Blomfield (centre) with customers in Washington\u00a0state in the US.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The firm hasn\u2019t released any financials, but Blomfield says his aim is to hit $100m in revenue and a $1 billion valuation within five years.<\/p>\n

\" Data from trucks pulled up under a Hectre Arc overhead scanner appears in near real-time.<\/p>\n

Arc is one half of his master plan. The other is what the founder calls a \u201cBloomberg terminal for fruit selling\u201d; an online platform trading AI data from his company\u2019s systems, which will \u201cmove the balance of power back to fruit producers\u201d. For now, details are under wraps.<\/p>\n

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 M\u0101ori o te Tau, M\u0101ori Company of the Year. The company was a finalist in three categories.<\/p>\n

Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald\u2019s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There, Hectre is developing new Arc sensors that capture internal defects, starch content and firmness via hyperspectral imaging,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[39052,282919,365,10007,6127,363,364,51,1859,28642,44185,1138,2065,314949,1437,157027,29984,302,7189,225,111,139,69,2680,314950,29461,101355,138532,32293,145,8229,61,29271,5977],"class_list":["post-642319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-5m","tag-agtech","tag-ai","tag-aipowered","tag-already","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-auckland","tag-carved","tag-develop","tag-enter","tag-firm","tag-fruit","tag-fruitscanning","tag-global","tag-hectre","tag-hyperspectral","tag-its","tag-lab","tag-market","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-opens","tag-opentop","tag-overhead","tag-packhouse","tag-scanner","tag-scans","tag-technology","tag-they","tag-to","tag-trucks","tag-which"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}