Landkind

In Founder Focus we introduce entrepreneurs and change-makers working on innovative startups, social enterprises and SME’s around Aotearoa New Zealand.

At a glance

Founders: Matt Flowerday, Greg Stevenson and James Ing

Business: Landkind

Founded: 2017

HQ: Bay of Plenty

Can you tell us a bit about your business?

At Landkind, we offer a SaaS software platform exclusively tailored to the horticultural industry in New Zealand, with a current focus on kiwifruit and apples. Our mission is driven by our belief in the potential of New Zealand horticulture and our commitment to shaping a better future for the industry. Landkind employs map-based visualisations to help bring data to life and enable the industry to work with information in ways it hasn’t been done previously. Through our platform, we empower growers, packhouses and industry to optimise their operations, streamline processes, and deliver quality results each season.

Landkind allows owners, managers and staff to view information across multiple orchards, quickly and accurately forecast and report crop estimates and maintain and share their orchard maps. Whether we are mapping on orchard hazards or recording maturity areas for harvest, we work closely with our clients to ensure we are delivering value and time savings to them. All together, this allows orchardists to get away from spreadsheets, pen and paper and embrace the digital future of horticulture – a future that is sustainable, profitable and world-beating.

What’s the backstory for your business idea?

The concept for Landkind began to take shape during the Esri Developer conference held in Palm Springs, California in 2017. It was during this conference that the team recognised the significant amount of untapped data in the horticulture industry, resulting from data silos and a lack of tools to effectively utilise and share information. This realisation fueled the idea behind Landkind, and the company emerged as a unit within GPSit.

With the expertise and experience gained from GPSit’s 20 years of successful mapping endeavours, Landkind aims to transform the industry by providing a comprehensive solution that bridges the gap between data silos, allowing for effective utilisation and sharing of information. By leveraging innovative technology and a deep understanding of the horticultural sector, Landkind is committed to unlocking the industries full potential.

What programmes, learning or mentoring, or resources have been of assistance so far?

As a company we have benefited from a lot of assistance and mentoring from many others within the agritech, start up and local business community.
The Icehouse has been massive from a business point of view with four different people attending courses through them.
We were also part of the Sprout Agritech Accelerator and had two fantastic mentors in Warren Bebb and Ian Clarke.
We’ve also had great support from Callaghan and NZTE as well as Agritech NZ.
The best advice we have is that there is a tonne of help and knowledge out there – it’s just a case of asking for it and being ready to make the commitment when the opportunity presents itself.