Sea-Flux founder Tai Ellis.
Tai Ellis was working as a rotational captain on Michael Hill’s boat, The Beast, month-on, month-off, as he developed Sea-Flux – the software for which he’s just raised millions in backing.
“I left school early,” the Nelson College old boy tells the Herald.
He went into fishing and aquaculture, becoming a commercial diver before landing a deck-hand role – Below Deck-style – on a superyacht during an OE in Europe. He worked his way up the chain, gaining certifications along the way, before becoming a captain for the Hill family-owned TB Marine between 2020 and 2024.
By that time, he was already two years into his side-hustle, Sea-Flux – software for managing a vessel, from crew rosters to safety checks to maintenance records to situational awareness.
Ellis mashed together what he calls an MVP (minimum viable product) using the free website-making tool Wordpress, essentially to make his own working life easier – but it became a word-of-mouth hit in the local area, and about 40 vessels around the Marlborough Sounds adopted it.
The Beast was also used as a proving ground. “I started to think, this could be a viable business,” Ellis says.
During the 2020 lockdown, he enlisted a contract software development firm to create Version 1.0 of Sea-Flux as a proper app (today he has a small team of in-house software engineers).
Family pitched in to help get Sea-Flux running as a commercial business from 2021.
His parents, Vaughan Ellis and Sharon Brechelt – who both had business careers – came out of retirement to tour New Zealand’s ports and marinas, towing a caravan.
“They went around New Zealand twice in the caravan, from Bluff all the way up to Whangaroa,” Ellis says.
If they succeeded in making a sale, the couple would then also help a vessel owner shift their vessel management to Sea-Flux.
Meanwhile, Phil Martin, a friend of Ellis’s father-in-law-to-be who held corporate sales roles with IBM and Telecom – put his own retirement on hold to help run the business side of things as managing director.
His parents did the same marina road-tour trick across the Tasman. Then, after inquiries started to come in from boat owners in the UK, they did the same there, too.
The largely word-of-mouth caravan marketing helped Sea-Flux grow into one of the fastest-growing global solutions for marine vessel management, now used by more than 9000 users over 1300 vessels, Martin says, including Coastguards, harbour authorities, tug and barge, fishing and aquaculture fleets, ferry operators, tourism ventures and superyachts worldwide.
The firm has been self-funded up until this month, Martin says. It has just raised $3 million in venture capital in a round lead by the Punakaiki Fund, which now has a 13% stake in Sea-Flux, implying a $23m post-deal valuation. The balance of shares are owned by Ellis, his parents and Martin.
The new funds will be used to accelerate growth. The firm, which now numbers about a dozen staff, is already recruiting for new software development and marketing roles.
Sea-Flux is also set to push into new territories, including the Middle East.
Various venture funds were auditioned for the raise.
Auckland waterfront dweller and Punakaiki co-founder Lance Wiggs has a strong focus on supporting firms to carve out new technology niches, but Martin says it also helped that the firm’s investment manager, 2040 Ventures’ Cormac McCullough, was a boatie “who absolutely understood the product”.
“It was a long interview process, in both directions. They wanted to talk to customers, we wanted smart money,” Martin says.
The new capital will also help Seaflux put the final touches on version 2.0 of its product. “There’s nothing else in the market that comes close. Now is the time to really put the hammer down,” Martin says.
Ellis says many new customers use mostly manual systems. But where it faces digital opposition, the founder says a Sea-Flux Version 1.0 feature is that the app can be used while offline – which can often happen at sea.
When seafarers regain Wi-Fi or other internet reception, the Sea-Flux app on a phone or tablet will synch and update.
Surveyors and auditors are also big Sea-Flux advocates for its time-saving potential, Ellis says. Remote, read-only access can be granted to relevant parts of a vessel’s records before a maintenance or safety inspection – helping to cut wait times in port.
The first iteration of Sea-Flux’s system has racked up industry recognition, including last year, when it won the Innovation Award for Electronic and Electrical Systems by ECMA (European Commercial Marine Awards) at Seawork Expo, Europe’s largest commercial vessel exhibition held in Southampton, England.
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.