Freedom Internet (FIL)

Ownership share – 55%

www.freedominternet.org

The business has a values-led culture, based on innovation, integrity, accountability, passion, unity and an empowered workforce. It prides itself on service excellence. Operating a comprehensive quality assurance programme with scheduled system maintenance, customer surveys, service level reporting, marketing incentives.

​

Access to the internet is vital to everyday life – an essential utility close behind water and power supply. The appetite for access to broadband is increasing at an enormous rate.

​

FIL is a leading specialist provider of high quality internet networks into apartment buildings and the accommodation sector throughout Australia and New Zealand.

​

Future growth will come from adding more buildings to the network, increased penetration and growth in the commercial market.

FIL works with body corporates, developers and building owners to deliver residents and guests high speed internet infrastructure. Using innovative technology, FIL aggregates user demand to access commercial fibre connections, supplies Wi-Fi into large buildings, and distributes it within. A “disruptor” business, FIL supplies a low cost, high quality offering, with favourable terms in comparison to traditional internet service providers.

​

FIL's competitive advantage comes from the fact that it is not a traditional ISP as it owns the infrastructure in the building giving it a very low cost per connection compared with traditional ISP's who have to pay huge costs per connection to Chorus or NBW.

Reduced to Clear (RTC)

Ownership share: 25%

www.reducedtoclear.co.nz

RTC is New Zealand’s original grocery clearance network. Established in 2008 it specialises in selling quality clearance items to retail customers at bargain prices. Supplying New Zealand’s largest range of clearance products, the goods are available for purchase through RTC’s network of retail stores (11 across the North Island), and online through the RTC website.

​

The company sources and supplies a wide and ever-changing range of grocery, FMCG, and consumer products from local suppliers and importers. RTC assists these businesses to move goods that may be short-dated stock, overstocks, insurance claims, end of lines, packaging changes, or cancelled export orders. Selling items that may have gone to landfill, also makes RTC an environmentally-friendly offering.

RTC was founded by Sean Hills. Hills ran the business successfully and sold it to South African company Bidvest in 2013 under whose ownership the business stalled. Hills repurchased the business in April 2016 and NWSLP participated in this purchase. The investment added value to the business, and provided governance assistance to management, to begin the successful turnaround of the company.

​

​RTC currently employs 130 people and the company valuation has increased significantly since NWSLP invested.

​

The value of NWSLP's investment in RTC has grown significantly as profitability has been turned around and further improvements expected.

Ask Your Team (AYT)

AskYourTeam (AYT) is a SaaS company that offers an interactive software solution aimed to revolutionise performance levels within businesses across the globe. 

Launched in 2014, AYT introduced a significant equity partner in 2017. This funding secured significant growth for the company and facilitated further strong sales into the private, public and education sectors.

The company achieved its financial goals in FY2019 and is on track to reach forecasted expansion and profitability in 2020, this business is in a fast growth mode and was recognised as the Central North Island Fastest Growing Technology Business in the Deloitte Fast 50.

Ownership share: 51%

www.askyourteam.com

Mind Hive (MH)

Ownership share: 30% 

www.mindhive.co.nz

MH builds sophisticated neural network solutions that analyse products and processes in operationally challenging environments. It uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine vision to capture and deliver unique operational data to clients, enabling operational efficiencies to be achieved and informed business decisions to be made.

​

MH’s value proposition is its ability to rapidly build and deploy robust solutions that:

​

• Unlock and activate operational data in hostile environments; data that otherwise cannot be captured

• Replace manual processes prone to human subjectivity with consistent and replicable AI solutions

• Significantly reduce the time and cost associated with processes that are manually intensive and subject to undue complication.

Examples of the application of the solutions include:

​​​

• Quality checking of products/materials as they move along high volume production lines with real-time inspection of steel bearings produced in a Japanese manufacturing plant

• Grading of semi-processed cattle hides at a tannery, the business has secured its first contract in this area.

​

In short, MH delivers greater efficiency for processes that involve visual inspection, that extend beyond the scope of human capability, or for which no manual or alternate solution is available. MH solutions capture the information faster, cheaper and more accurately than traditional processes.

​

This business generates ? income streams and operates globally and in a very attractive area of the market.