The pandemic proved a speed bump, or closer to hitting a wall, as lockdowns hit. “It was hard times for us as a company. We had to rebuild. It was a formative experience,” Judge said.

Dexibit managed to rebound, expanding its software from museums to stadiums, theme parks and other commercial attractions.

The buyer

Accesso has a market cap of £84m ($194m), 650 staff and offices in nine countries, with its largest operations in London and Orlando.

It has some crossover with Dexibit, but also handles everything from point-of-sale to ticketing to safety waivers for the likes of snowboarding operations.

Who’s staying on?

Judge says Dexabit had around 70 major customers at the time of the deal, and was “near break-even”.

All 10 Dexabit staff will stay on, bar chief operating officer Justin Kearney (Judge’s husband), who is going to use the opportunity to take a career break.

Judge is taking things up a gear in her new AI-focused role as senior vice president of Accesso Intelligence, a division that includes Dexabit.

Who made out?

The deal wrapped up overnight and requires no regulatory approvals, Judge said.

Ahead of the US$12m ($21m) deal, Judge was the single-largest Dexibit shareholder, with a 25% stake, followed by Icehouse Ventures (22%) and Kearney (16%).

Smaller investors included Crown agency New Zealand Growth Capital Partners via its Aspire fund (7%) and Sir Stephen Tindall’s ubiquitous K1W1 (3%).

Icehouse will more than double its investment if all deal terms and conditions are met (the deal comprises a US$7.1m upfront cash payment and a US$5m earnout if certain milestones are met).

Icehouse Ventures chief executive Robbie Paul told the Herald it invested $1.8m across its first three rounds in 2016, 2018 and 2019, including its Seed Fund 2.

“Prior to the first round, Angie and Dexibit were standouts in our start-up accelerator.”

Paul added: “Angie and the team were incredibly resilient, especially during Covid lockdowns, when most of their customers had to close their doors.

“My view is that this resilience was attributable to their passion for empowering cultural institutions across the world. It is always great to find founders who are deeply passionate about their customers and industry.

“We have been proud to see Dexibit take Kiwi technology to the likes of the Aquarium of the Pacific, the Smithsonian, MoMA [the Museum of Modern Art] and more.”

Landing prestigious US customers brought Dexibit into contact with Accesso.

“It’s a small industry,” Judge said.

Accesso eventually proposed a takeover, leading to the deal announced overnight.

Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.