Onside, a New Zealand agricultural technology company, has acquired Assura, another Christchurch software business, Startup Daily reported on September 28, 2026.
The price was not disclosed. Assura's configurable workflow software will be added to Onside's platform, and Assura chief executive Hamish Howard will join Onside's leadership team. The deal also brings in Assura's software team and its enterprise customers.
The combined business supports more than 60,000 users in New Zealand, Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Mexico and Fiji. Onside is now starting to raise capital, though it did not give a target.
What Assura built
Assura makes workflow software that can be configured for different business processes and compliance rules. Its customers use it to manage health and safety, risk, compliance, contractor processes, irrigation and other day-to-day business tasks.
Howard said the company had built its software around solving operational problems in the way customers need to work, and that joining Onside would let it deliver more to agricultural customers at a larger scale.
The companies did not report Assura's founding date, revenue or funding history.
“Agribusinesses shouldn't need five different systems to know what's happening across their own operations.”
What Onside does
Onside was founded in Christchurch in 2015. Its software helps agricultural businesses track activity on farms and other sites, manage contractors and visitors, meet health and safety rules and monitor biosecurity risks from pests and disease.
The company says its platform is used on 25,000 properties in Asia-Pacific, North America and the United Kingdom and has recorded more than eight million property check-ins. It employs 60 people in Christchurch and Melbourne. Its customers range from individual producers to large processors. Named customers include poultry breeder Cobb Vantress, animal genetics company Hendrix Genetics and meat processor ANZCO Foods.
Onside said its annual recurring revenue grew 114% over the past 12 months, but it did not disclose a revenue figure.
Its focus has been worker safety, biosecurity risks and the requirements producers and processors must meet to access markets. The company's stated aim is to give customers a single view of operational data across the agricultural supply chain, from individual farms to processing plants.
Why Onside is buying
Co-founder and chief executive Ryan Higgs said the deal answers demand from customers for a more integrated way to run their operations. His argument is that farm businesses should not need several separate systems to see what is happening across their sites, from who comes through the gate to the compliance work that keeps their produce in export markets.
Onside's strategy is to pull information from compliance, safety, quality assurance and biosecurity into one operating platform, so that customers can spot risks without switching between disconnected tools. Assura's workflow tools and enterprise relationships extend that approach to larger customers, from individual producers and service providers up to processors and businesses with many sites.
Higgs said the two businesses were complementary, that both teams knew the sector well, and that they shared a commitment to software built specifically for agriculture.
For Assura, the deal provides access to Onside's wider agricultural technology platform and its international customer base. Startup Daily described the purchase as expanding both Onside's product range and its customer base outside New Zealand as it prepares to raise money.
What comes next
Onside plans to use the money it is now raising to fund expansion, hiring, technology and growth in overseas markets. Adding Assura before the round gives it a larger customer base and a broader product to show investors.
Agricultural producers face growing compliance, safety, quality assurance and biosecurity requirements, especially those selling into export markets. The Onside–Assura deal brings together two Christchurch companies whose products, by their own description, complement rather than overlap, and lets Onside offer one system where customers previously needed two.
