Kiwi agritech startup flourishes with homegrown legal marketplace

Another day another Kiwi startup blooming with a solution based off data.

Acuris Systems is a Kiwi startup that launched this year looking to disrupt the kiwifruit industry in New Zealand by redefining 'attention to detail'.

According to the company, data drives orchard management decisions and current fruit monitoring practices are not only tedious but also prone to error, which can culminate to the severe detriment of an orchard's yield.

The solution from Acuris Systems enables users to micromanage their crop at a currently unviable level of granularity using autonomous robotics technology to capture and process data of an orchard's entire fruit population. It aims to drive a new style of data-driven decision making in orchard practices and management.

Like Acuris Systems, Consensus is a Kiwi startup that launched this year with the intention to revolutionise its industry. The company offers effectively an 'online marketplace of lawyers' to make using legal services significantly less daunting with fixed up-front fees and a client-centric focus.

Acuris Systems co-founder and director Nicholas Woon recently employed the services of Consensus and is pleased with the pricing shake-up of the previously brittle legal industry.

"Choice and a fixed fee just weren't things I was expecting when we were looking for a lawyer. We needed someone who could get up to speed quickly on our job so that we could start piloting our tech to growers. We decided to post our job on Consensus and got two great proposals from lawyers in Auckland and Christchurch," says Woon.

"We wouldn't have found those lawyers and probably wouldn't have been able to find a fixed fee arrangement without Consensus. Now we're ready to launch our pilot programme and we're really excited about what's to come.

Consensus CEO Anton Smith says the online company is bridging the gap between quality lawyers and startups that need legal services to get their product to market.

"Nick and Acuris needed somewhere to start and we were thrilled Consensus could provide them with a way to find a lawyer to meet their needs at a fixed price. Clients have never had choice like this before and, best of all, it's free for them to use.

"Our aim is for Consensus to be the trusted legal marketplace for New Zealand - and to better democratise access to legal services.