TradeWindow closes deal to acquire Auckland company Rfider

TradeWindow has announced that its agreement to acquire the business and assets of Rfider Limited, an Auckland-based software company, first announced to the market on 17 May this year, has now gone unconditional.

Rfider has developed a mobile interface that can be rapidly deployed in complex supply chains to capture many points of data.

TradeWindow is acquiring the business and assets from Rfider Limited, which primarily comprises the Rfider software platform, associated intellectual property and customer relationships.

The acquisition will help TradeWindow extend its reach deeper into primary industry supply chains by providing traceability all the way back to the points of cultivation and production, the company states.

TradeWindow CEO AJ Smith welcomed John Pennington and his team from Rfider into the fold at TradeWindow.

Smith says, "We are delighted to go unconditional on the purchase of Rfider and excited by the synergies. Rfider's functionality significantly enhances our existing provenance solution, with its impressive user experience and broader target market.

He continues, "The skilled team, as well as customers from Australasia, Europe, USA and South America which will come across as part of this acquisition, will significantly accelerate TradeWindow's penetration of the traceability market."

Smith says the acquisition significantly enhances TradeWindow's existing provenance solution, with its 'impressive' user experience and broader target market.

He says, "We are excited by the synergies. Rfider's functionality will strengthen TradeWindow's offer for our customers who compete on transparency of origin, ethical practices, sustainability and quality.

"It also broadens our offerings to our customers beyond the export operations team to help solve broader issues of concern to the marketing team, and senior management/board with respect to marketing claims of sustainability and verification for ESG reporting."

The skilled team, as well as customers from Australasia, Europe, USA and South America which will come across as part of the acquisition, will significantly accelerate TradeWindow's penetration of the traceability market. It will give TradeWindow positive exposure to an additional estimated $16.8 billion worldwide market opportunity for food traceability.

For example, Rfider provides TradeWindow with a presence in the large soft commodity markets outside of Australasia – where the coffee bean market alone has a worldwide total addressable market of US$27 billion.

Last year, Rfider's interoperable food traceability solution was a winner of the US FDA's 2021 "New Era of Smarter Food Safety Low- or No-Cost Tech-enabled Traceability Challenge".

Rfider Founder and CEO John Pennington, who will join TradeWindow as a fulltime employee, welcomes the move into the TradeWindow fold.

He says, "We are proud of the progress we have made actualising traceability across global supply chains right down to the individual item level. Combining our FDA award winning solution with TradeWindow will see our combined customers served with an even stronger solution."

Rfider's customers include global leaders in soft commodities and foods and beverages, including ECOM Agroindustrial Corporation (Switzerland), Sucden (France), Zealandia Honey and a major New Zealand brewery.

Settlement for the acquisition of Rfider is expected to take place on or around 29 July 2022.

This week TradeWindow completed an oversubscribed $9 million capital raise and opened a share purchase plan for up to an additional $1 million for existing shareholders.

The purpose of the raise was to provide TradeWindow with the funding to continue to execute on quality growth opportunities moving forward.

This move follows earlier acquisitions of Prodoc, IVS Origin, Cyberfreight, Freight Legend and SpeEDI.