Auckland dropout raises early VC for AI crime-fighting startup Azonic
What's the deal? AzonicDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a New Zealand startup building AI tools for online-crime investigation, has raised an early-stage venture round at a multimillion-dollar valuation. Founder Caden Scott, a former University of Auckland commerce student, describes the product as "the operating system for online-crime investigation."
Who backed it? The round drew Singapore-based venture and private equity firm AntlerDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, alongside angel backers including Pushpay co-founder Eliot CrowtherDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and Emerge co-founder Jovan PavlicevicDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →.
What's the endgame? Azonic's AI system handles the slow groundwork of investigations — following obvious leads, sharing information, and managing cross-jurisdictional demands — leaving analysts to take over cases that are "already most of the way to a conclusion." The website stresses the analyst "stays in charge of every call, and can check anything before acting on it." Registered only in March, the company will use the funding for new hires and to prepare a commercial launch.
Who's behind it? Scott left Waitākere College at 14 during Covid lockdowns and never returned, getting by building games on Roblox. He later took a business diploma at UnitecDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, started a commerce degree at Auckland in 2025, and has since dropped out to focus on Azonic.
The credentials. Along the way, Scott founded a non-profit, the International Online Crime Coordination Center, became a commentator on gaming-platform harm, and advised b416, a group pushing for an under-16 social media ban. Azonic has also recruited two advisers with US law-enforcement ties: Brad Brekke, a founding director of the FBI's Office of the Private Sector, and Michael Hurley, a former CIA senior manager who later advised Palantir chief executive officer Alex Karp.
The signal: The round shows New Zealand's early-stage ecosystem — increasingly visible through programmes like Auckland's Business Navigators — channelling capital into applied AI. Backing a very young company with a teenage-founder story and heavyweight advisers reflects investor appetite for tools that automate specialist, high-stakes work.
Read more: nzherald.co.nz
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
