Maui Capital Backs kinaroad Global Surfboard Manufacturing Platform
AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND – June 2nd 2016– Auckland-based company kinaroad® and Maui Capital today announced an investment deal that could see Maui invest up to NZD20 million in kinaroad over the next three years.
For Immediate Release:
kinaroad closed their latest capital round with leading private equity firm Maui Capital this week. “We are delighted to have Maui Capital as a partner, not just for their financial capability, but for their experience in building successful companies. Their investment is validation of the scale of the business opportunity ahead of us”, said kinaroad CEO Scott Fenton.
Maui Capital was established in 2008 by Paul Chrystall and Brent Lawgun and has NZD500 million under management with investments spanning a broad range of industries. “We specialise in partnering with successful management teams to build and grow quality companies”, said Brent Lawgun. “kinaroad is at the front end of a manufacturing revolution made possible by robotics which will see many industries transformed over the next decade. They have a significant opportunity for growth and we are really excited by this investment opportunity”.
kinaroad has developed a revolutionary robotic shaping solution and offers ‘shaping as a service’ to surfboard manufacturers. Their technology allows surfboards to be precision-shaped decreasing the requirement for skilled manual labour, thereby removing the major bottleneck from today’s surfboard manufacturing facilities. “By utilising robotics we have been able to develop a system that can operate 24 hours a day, shaping multiple boards consecutively without human intervention – a world first”, says founder Paul Winton.
kinaroad launched their technology in Australia earlier this year and has been subsequently swamped with demand from surfboard manufacturers around the world.
Maui’s ability to follow on and continue funding the business as it scales was a crucial differentiator for kinaroad when choosing an investment partner. Fenton explains, “Our business model is to retain ownership of the robots, deploying them into existing manufacturing facilities and charge a per shape fee, creating a recurring revenue stream. To do this at scale requires a lot of capital and it was therefore critical to find an investment partner who could go the distance.”
“With Maui’s backing, we have the ability to scale extremely quickly and create an industry-standard platform. It allows us to support our customers’ manufacturing requirements in multiple locations, providing them with consistency of product, without requiring them to invest any capital up front. It’s a win win.”
kinaroad has plans to deploy more than twenty robotic shaping systems around the globe over the next three years.
ENDS
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