NZ's TradeWindow buys traceability specialist Rfider

New Zealand tech company TradeWindow has agreed a deal to acquire Rfider, an Auckland-based developer of traceability software mainly serving the food industry, in a deal valued at around NZ$10m ($6.4m).

Rfider's mobile-based platform is described as an "all-in-one solution for collecting, securing and sharing item-level traceability and process data within and across organisations," revolving around scanning product identifiers using a smartphone camera through the supply chain from producer to consumer.

The platform can support a range of identifiers, including 2D datamatrix, QR and Amazon store codes, as well as near-field communication (NFC) and radiofrequency identification (RFID) tags, which can be read using a mobile app.

It is being used by an array of companies including Colombian coffee exporter Mastercol, NZ construction materials supplier Steel&Tube, Fijian mineral water supplier VaiWai and Zealandia Honey, one of NZ's top producers of Manuka and other native variety honeys.

Last year, its food traceability platform was a winner in the FDAs "New Era of Smarter Food Safety Low- or No-Cost Tech-enabled Traceability Challenge".

NZX-listed TradeWindow, which provides digital supply chain software for exporters, importers, freight forwarders, and customs brokers, said adding Rfider to its portfolio would help it "extend its reach deeper into primary industry supply chains by providing traceability all the way back to the points of cultivation and production."

It said adding Rfider's technology to its portfolio would allow it to tap into a worldwide market for food traceability technologies that is worth around NZ$16.8bn annually.

Rfider founder and CEO John Pennington will join TradeWindow as a fulltime employee. The purchase price of the company will depend on sales revenues over the next two years, and will start with an initially payment of NZ$2.5m.

"We are proud of the progress we have made actualising traceability across global supply chains right down to the individual item level. Combining our FDA award winning solution with TradeWindow will see our combined customers served with an even stronger solution,” said Pennington.