Auckland start-up called Inviol has raised $2.5 million in seed money for its AI technology that helps customers like Woolworths, Placemakers and Vulcan Steel monitor and reduce workplace risks. It was a case of ‘paying
it forward’ as Kiwi entrepreneurs who had enjoyed earlier hits chipped in with funds.

Inviol founder Tane van der Boon first popped up on our screens in 2018 with a non-commercial venture. He was co-founder, CEO, drone pilot and technology guy for Maui63, the World Wildlife Fund, Government and Qrious-backed venture that saw a tracking drone, equipped with AI-powered detection technology, find and track endangered Māui and Hector’s dolphins.

“AI Computer Vision” (a 50X HD camera combined with various sensors and AI tools) was used to identify individual dolphins by their markings, and automated surveying to reveal movement patterns.

He carried over the “using computers to see” principles to Inviol – but instead of tracking dolphins, the technology tracks people in the workplace where there are physical risks, focusing on the likes of loading zones, warehouse operations and manufacturing sites.

Van der Boon first struck on the idea for Inviol when working as IT division lead for Auckland-based Vulcan Steel last decade.

His old employer has also become one of his first customers, and one of Inviol’s financial backers. Vulcan chief information officer and health and safety head James Wells has joined Inviol’s board.

Vulcan’s founders know about starting from scratch. The now NZX- and ASX-listed firm started life as a garage in East Tamaki in 1995 with just two trucks and a Portacom (its market cap is now just over $1 billion; founder Peter Wells retired in 2021).

As well as supplying “pre-seed” funding, Vulcan let van der Boon use its facilities for research and development.

Vulcan also participated in the $2.5m seed round just closed, but it was led by two software entrepreneurs, both also from Auckland: Ivan Seselj, who founded process management software firm Promapp in 2002 then sold it to US firm Nintex in 2018 for an undisclosed sum, and Hadleigh Bognuda, who created ezyVet, a maker of software for managing veterinary practices that he sold to Nasdaq-listed Idexx Laboratories in 2021 for $216m.

Van der Boon remains the single largest shareholder with a 39 per cent stake.

Inviol can already boast a solid line-up of early customers, including Woolworths (aka Countdown and recently rebranded) in its warehouse operation, Placemakers and the aforementioned Vulcan Steel at its operations in Auckland and Melbourne.

The raise will be used in part to expand the start-up’s business in Australia and to make a push into the US.

“We’re going to scale the business,” van der Boon says.

Inviol’s demo clips look a bit like scenes from The Terminator as the AI-assisted camera zooms in and highlights employees who have strayed into dangerous warehouse situations. One worker jumps off a ladder from an unsafe height, one is strolling around without PPE (personal protective equipment, if you’ve already forgotten your pandemic-speak). Another hoons too fast in a forklift. Alerts and training messages are sent.

Behind the scenes, the system is using deep-learning algorithms to understand what things are, and what’s going on, van der Boon says.

Spark (with its IoT or internet of things unit), nVidia, Microsoft, Vulcan and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are Inviol’s key technology partners.

Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.