PhaseFoam’s Road to Cold Chain Revolution
For decades, the global logistics network has relied on noisy, costly, emissions-heavy diesel engines to keep fresh produce chilled during transit. Now, PhaseFoam, an innovative Auckland-based startup is turning the traditional cold chain on its head, continuing the growth of world-class climate technology born and bred in New Zealand.
PhaseFoam’s deep-tech commercialisation journey bridges the gap between academic research and gritty, real-world execution. The company is built upon the life’s work of co-founder Professor Mohammed Farid, a world leader in energy storage who spent nearly thirty years pioneering phase change materials at the University of Auckland.
“What makes this technology special is that it was born and bred out of academic life in Auckland,” says his son and PhaseFoam chief executive, Sam Farid. “It demonstrates how creative, sophisticated ideas can transition out of academia and into the commercial world to solve genuine problems and deliver real value to consumers.” Recognising the market potential, Sam left a corporate career at Fonterra to launch the business, which is now operating from the Newmarket Innovation Precinct, determined to bring this homegrown innovation to the global stage.
Transitioning this scientific concept into a viable venture required immense resilience. Spinning out of the University of Auckland’s commercial arm, UniServices, PhaseFoam initially focused on creating solid-state thermal panels to insulate delivery vehicles, provide passive cooling and mitigate heat. While the engineering was sound, early market traction proved elusive. The turning point came eighteen months ago when the team decided to fundamentally iterate their technology and focus directly on replacing diesel-powered refrigerated transport systems.
The catalyst for this shift came through an ex-colleague from Sam’s Fonterra days who introduced the startup to Andries Els, managing director of ELS Distribution, a dairy distribution franchisee operating within one of New Zealand’s largest dairy supply chains. Els operated a refrigerated fleet delivering fresh dairy to supermarkets, dairies and cafes across Auckland, where maintaining a strict 4°C product environment is vital for safeguarding shelf life. When the PhaseFoam team first met ELS Distribution, owner Els was facing a familiar headache. “We met with Andries while a technician was repairing his leaking, legacy refrigeration system,” Sam explains. “He looked at us and said, ‘If you can get rid of these units so I never have to deal with them again, I am all yours.’ That was the moment we found our market fit.”
Responding to this challenge, PhaseFoam developed an active thermal cooling battery. Instead of relying on a conventional diesel-powered refrigeration unit with a compressor, refrigerants, and other moving components, the system stores cooling energy using proprietary phase change material technology in an innovative but simple way. Charged from electricity using a commercial freezer overnight for six to eight hours, the unit stores significant energy. Once loaded onto a truck, a simple plug-in to a standard twenty-four-volt cigarette lighter socket powers circulation fans that draw chilled air from the core, maintaining the required 4°C environment for up to eight hours.
To prove the commercial viability of this alternative, PhaseFoam concluded a grueling 250-day operational trial carrying real dairy products on live delivery routes. Backed by strict oversight from food safety teams, the cooling battery was tested to its limits during the sweltering Auckland summer, when ambient temperatures regularly exceeded twenty-five degrees. The system successfully contended with a delivery driver’s greatest enemy: heat ingress caused by frequent door openings during the customer deliveries. Despite the constant influx of warm air, the proprietary energy storage system repeatedly absorbed heat entering the truck, and never breached critical food safety thresholds.
This operational success has taken on urgent relevance against today’s volatile global climate. With the ongoing geopolitical conflict in the Middle East severely squeezing international oil reserves, diesel supply lines have contracted sharply, causing fuel prices at local pumps to skyrocket. Simultaneously, volatility in petrochemical markets has sent the cost of traditional synthetic refrigerants spiralling. For the domestic transport sector, these international shocks are immediate threats to survival. PhaseFoam’s technology stands as a robust shield against these macroeconomic storms by completely removing the diesel variable from the distribution equation.
By shifting transport cooling away from fossil fuels and onto an electrically charged thermal battery, Kiwi operators can insulate their operational costs from overseas warfare and supply chain manipulation. This vulnerability highlights a larger truth about the shifting role of the New Zealand cleantech industry, which has rapidly transitioned from an environmental luxury into an essential pillar of national economic resilience. This strategic importance has enabled PhaseFoam to secure critical seed funding from deep-tech venture capital firm WNT Ventures and UniServices, complemented by government innovation funding originally provided through Callaghan Innovation and now administered by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).
As PhaseFoam raises capital to scale operations and deploy a hundred units over the next twenty-four months, the manufacturing strategy focuses entirely on utilising bespoke New Zealand partners to ensure the product retains its authentic, homegrown quality.
For the Farid duo, the journey from a university lab to a disruptive force in regional logistics is a testament to the power of perseverance. “You have to believe in what you are doing and back your vision with absolute conviction,” reflects Sam Farid. “If you possess that core resilience, you can reshape any technology to meet the true needs of the market and create something that genuinely changes the world.”
Interview by Sam Collins.
