2022 EY Entrepreneurs of the Year - James Corbett, Tom Batterbury & Phil Thomson, founders of Auror Ltd
In 2022 the Auror team won the New Zealand EY Entrepreneur of the Year award and in June this year the team travelled to Monaco to participate in the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™.
Auror is a crime prevention and detection software that is helping retailers around the world reduce losses, and police prevent crime. With more than 80% of the nation’s retailers using the platform, Auror saves NZ Police 200,000 hours a year in investigations.
When Phil Thomson, James Corbett and Tom Batterbury were in their early 20s, they left promising careers with top consulting, law and technology companies to start Auror. Their mission: to harness technology to transform the way retailers and police report, solve and prevent crime.
The three friends realised the rise in organised retail crime (ORC) groups had become a $150 billion problem for retailers around the world, costing New Zealand’s retailers $2 million every day.
With information siloed across multiple systems, and no way to easily identify and link offenders to ORC groups, retailers were falling back on their own prevention strategies, which often led to poor community outcomes. Offenders’ personal Information was being shared in social media groups, with no consideration for privacy. Retail staff often resorted to racial bias, resulting in innocent customers being refused service or falsely accused of crimes.
To stop this vicious spiral, the team built the world’s first retail crime intelligence software platform. Starting in NZ, Auror brokered a partnership with NZ Police, putting 4,500 police users on the platform and digitising their community interactions. Today, with more than 80% of the nation’s retailers using the platform, Auror saves NZ Police 200,000 hours a year in investigations.
NZ Police also use license plate recognition data from the platform’s retailers to help solve other crimes. By connecting the dots on organised crime intelligence, the Auror platform has not just reduced retail theft, saving retailers millions of dollars, but helped police solve numerous murders and drug-related crimes.
The company has an office in Denver and has been successful in saving Walmart millions of dollars.
In 2021 Auror won the AmCham-DHL Express Success & Innovation award for Exporter of the Year under $1m. Since then the business has grown rapidly and they are a finalist in the 2023 AmCham-DHL Express Success & Innovation awards Exporter of the Year High Growth category.
Date: 19th Sept
Time: 5.00pm to 7.30pm, presentation followed by refreshments and networking
Venue: Ernst & Young Ltd, 2 Takutai Square, Britomart, Auckland 1010, New Zealand
Cost: Members $50 inc GST, Non-Members $60 inc GST
