Our Story

Matt arrived back in NZ after doing his OE and the story is, he had $500 to his name. Having qualified with a BA in Architectural Engineering, Matt was looking at his career options.

What he really wanted to do was to start a business. But he had no capital.

So he needed to earn some cash and headed to the Tutaekuri River in Hawkes Bay to go whitebaiting for three months. “I made $5000, and with it I bought a car, a computer and a moisture meter, and started building some software.”

Spotting a gap in the market, Matt saw the potential of developing a property inspection system. He started working on a software inspection system tailored to New Zealanders.

That was 2011 and after doing the hard graft, Matt built New Zealand’s biggest property inspection company – Betta Group with three brands covering property inspections, building compliance and asbestos sampling and testing.

And so Betta Inspect It, Betta Property Compliance and Betta Asbestos Consultancy make up Betta NZ Limited (Betta Group).

Run as a franchise style organisation, Betta Group have inspectors throughout New Zealand who are locals in their area with building industry skills and knowledge.

How has Betta Group been successful?
Being solution focused and developing a software system specifically for the Kiwi market. Matt spotted a gap – there were no property inspection companies doing this already, no-one that was focused on the Kiwi market.

How did Matt do this? 
Doing the hard yards, Matt taught himself to code via YouTube. By overcoming obstacles, Matt’s first inspection took eleven hours rather than the ideal one to two hours it takes today. He really despaired, but persevered, improving his software system and his timeframes. The original system is the basis of what Betta Group uses now, but it has been rebuilt three times since.

“For the first two years, we were just treading water, but from there we went through a big growth phase. That put pressure on the business, and then we went through a rebuild phase to manage that growth, and now we are growing again.”

We are at an exciting stage for the business. We are well-capitalised, have good systems across our brands and have a clear and targeted five-year strategic plan that we are working towards. We are well positioned and have earned the right to grow.

“Our strategic plan targets continued growth. That involves increasing our market share and consolidating the markets that we operate in, and over time we will look to add more brands to our services.”