Starboard is a maritime domain awareness platform that can pinpoint any vessel in the maritime environment, assess the vessel’s behaviour over time, and notify authorities about any illegal activity at sea.
Why we invested
Starboard helps reduce instances of illegal, unregulated fishing - a cornerstone industry both in Aotearoa and our neighbours in the Pacific. The platform also helps biosecurity and customs officers collaborate across nations, rather than limit stewardship activities to their Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). In the context of ocean impact, Starboard empowers both private and government organisations to take action where it otherwise wouldn't have been possible.
Central to our investment thesis was the addition of impact terms through which we ensured that the integrity of the business’s impact is protected through clearly defined activities and by reducing the likelihood of unintended negative consequences.
Transaction Summary
IRIS+ is a set of generally-accepted system created by the Global Impact Investment Network (GIIN) to standardise impact metrics and themes.
Visibility over illegal/harmful marine activity is extremely low, making it difficult for governments and other agencies to protect our oceans and other subsea marine assets.
Provision of comprehensive, real-time behavioural insights from analysis of maritime activities to help prevent:
- illegal, unreported, unregulated fishing
- human and drug trafficking
- crime targeting submarine cables and other assets at sea
Starboard’s end users are customs, commercial asset owners, and agencies responsible for monitoring marine assets and operations, economic exclusion zones, and fisheries—those responsible for protecting the ocean and those who depend on it.
Scale: Client base, including governments and associated agencies, subsea asset owners, and commercial fisheries.
Depth: Customers whose rights, assets, and/or operations are compromised or impacted while Starboard’s technology is in use, and who are able to take action against offenders.
Duration: Length of time each client remains a user; for downstream stakeholders, the mitigation of economic and social harm is broad and enduring.
Data on maritime activity and behavioural insights would not have been available without Starboard.
Unintended Impact risk: As a tracking and monitoring technology, the product can be used for harmful surveillance (e.g., to prevent seaborne refugees from reaching their destination). Investment terms include harm-avoidance restrictions on platform usage and board oversight to mitigate potential misuse.
Number of customers, segmented by industry and use case: quantifying reach and monitoring how clients use the technology.
Qualitative insights evidencing how customer use cases contribute to long-term impact outcomes.
Measuring What Matters
Impacts of enterprises on people and the planet can be understood across five dimensions, as defined by the Impact Management Project.
