On the Beaton track: Auckland University ‘Navigators’ student raises venture capital for crime-fighting startup at multimillion valuation

The raise was supported by Antler, a venture and private equity firm based in Singapore, Beaton, Eliot Crowther (the Pushpay co-founder who also recently backed Stirling, a robot accountant startup) and Jovan Pavlicevic, co-founder of fintech Emerge.

Azonic has also named two advisory board members with high-powered connections in United States law enforcement: Brad Brekke, a founding director of the FBI’s Office of the Private Sector and Michael Hurley, a former CIA senior manager who became an advisor to Palantir co-founder and CEO Alex Karp.

Scott told the Herald he left Waitākere College at 14 amid Covid lockdowns, and never went back to high school. He got by developing games for the Roblox platform.

He studied for a Diploma in Business at Unitec in 2024, which became his entree to starting a BComm at Auckland University in 2025; where he has – whisper it quietly – now dropped out to focus on Azonic.

Along the way, he formed a non-profit called the International Online Crime Coordination Center (IOC3), becoming a TV commentator on social media and gaming platform harm and a youth advisor to b416, the group advocating for an under-16 social media ban.

Thomas Holdom serves as Azonic’s chief technology officer, Caden Scott as the start-up’s chief executive. The pair are now hiring. Photo / Dean Purcell

Scott calls Azonic “the operating system for online-crime investigation” – an AI-driven system that can take care of basic tasks, information sharing and cross-jurisdictional demands.

“It does the slow groundwork, following the obvious leads and building the case out. The analyst picks up an investigation that is already most of the way to a conclusion, stays in charge of every call, and can check anything before acting on it,” the startup’s website says.

The seed funding will be used for new hires and to prepare Azonic – only registered in March – for its commercial launch.

ABOVE: Scott, second row at left, after last Wednesday’s navigator’s class featuring Sir Peter Beck (front centre).

Scott says his startup is in talks with law enforcement agencies on both sides of the Tasman.

What’s to stop law enforcement agencies vibe-coding their own crime-fighting tools?

Scott says they don’t have the time or in-house skills.

An agent with the FBI, or an analyst with Internal Affairs or an officer with the NZ police might have a backlog of dozens or even hundreds of online crime cases, Scott told the Herald.

“We basically automate the entire process of intelligence collection for law enforcement agencies.”

Azonic was started because the fastest-growing criminal networks in the world have no headquarters to raid and no hierarchy to dismantle, he says.

They run on the platforms millions use every day, organising child sexual exploitation, sextortion, fraud and violent extremism across dozens of countries at once, Scott says.

Photo / Dean Purcell

When one account falls, three more appear, and reports of these crimes reaching agencies have multiplied year after year.

The “maths” has changed with AI, Scott says. Investigators need new tools to match the bad guys’ speed and scale.

“I first met Caden as an inquisitive student in Business Navigators. I was blown away when he described his ‘side hustle’ fighting cybercrime and quickly realised his profound and burning passion for the space,” Beaton said.

Blackbird’s Palmer said: “Online crime is scaling faster than the systems built to investigate it, and Azonic is tackling that gap with technology designed specifically for the realities of investigative work.

“Caden brings rare firsthand exposure to the problem through his work building IOC3, while Thomas brings deep experience building AI systems for complex organisations.”

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.