We’re closing out the year with truly exciting news. This quarter brings one of the biggest announcements in Jade’s recent history: our acquisition of Contec Group International. It’s a major milestone that expands Jade into a second global vertical and accelerates our growth as an industry-focused B2B SaaS company. It’s rare that we get to share something of this scale, and we couldn’t be more thrilled.
Alongside this, we’re celebrating outstanding students from our university partners, welcoming new talent into the business, and continuing to build momentum across the Jade Platform community. With planning for Jade Velocity 2026 already well underway, there’s a lot happening and even more to look forward to.
Read on for more info.
Happy Developing! Jade Platform Engineering
Jade welcomes Contec Group International into the fold
We’re pleased to share an important step forward in Jade’s evolution. Contec Group International, creators of MADCAP™, is joining Jade. MADCAP is recognised as the leading dairy supply-chain management platform globally and is used by six of the world’s ten largest dairy producers.
This acquisition marks a significant moment in our strategy to grow as an industry-specific B2B SaaS provider. Contec’s expertise strengthens our portfolio beyond financial compliance and positions Jade firmly within a second international vertical: milk supply-chain technology. The move is expected to lift our annual revenue by 20–25 percent and lays the groundwork for sustained growth in global markets.
It also reunites two Christchurch-founded innovators with a long-standing connection. MADCAP has been built on Jade technology for many years, and Contec have been trusted members of our community throughout that time. By bringing our teams together, we can accelerate product development, broaden our international reach, and deliver even greater value and reliability for customers who depend on both the Jade Platform and MADCAP every day.
We’re proud to support the next generation of developers through our long-standing partnerships with tertiary institutions. This quarter, we had the pleasure of recognising outstanding students from both the University of Canterbury and the Southern Institute of Technology.
University of Canterbury: Jade Prize winner
Congratulations to Louie Campion, winner of the Jade Prize Award for the top student in the UC Jade course (INFO213-25S1). This course takes students through object-oriented analysis, design, and development, giving them valuable hands-on experience with the Jade Platform. Louie stood out for his thoughtful design work, technical ability, and genuine curiosity. Our CEO, Justin Mercer, and Director of Technology, Dean Cooper, attended the award ceremony to celebrate UC’s high achievers and connect with the next generation of industry talent.
Southern Institute of Technology: Jade Award recipients
At the Southern Institute of Technology, we recognised an impressive group of second-year IT students whose work demonstrated creativity, discipline, and strong technical capability.
Most Outstanding Jade Project (Joint Award) • Liam Ansell-Douglas • Peggy Tan Jing Yuan • Jacob Sullivan
Top Jade Programmer • Keisuke Suzuki
Top Student • Azriel Dyers
Each of these students impressed with the quality of their thinking and their command of Jade-based development. We congratulate them all on their achievements and look forward to seeing where their careers take them.
Welcoming a familiar face: Theodore Parker joins Jade.
We’re thrilled to welcome Theodore (Theo) Parker as a full-time member of the Jade team working with the ThirdEye team.
Theo first caught our attention as the 2024 winner of the Jade Technologies Prize for Object-Oriented Systems Development at the University of Canterbury. Since completing his studies, he has continued to refine his craft and develop his technical capability. We’re delighted to have him contributing to our work and to see his talent flourish within the team.
Welcoming new intern: Lachlan McIlroy.
We’re also pleased to welcome Lachlan McIlroy, who joins us as an intern during the final year of his degree at ARA.
Lachlan has already contributed to the Jade Platform ecosystem as part of the ARA student group who tested AskJ ahead of release. He’ll now be turning his attention to how we build modern Jade applications using Orb, helping shape the future of application development on the platform. We’re excited to have him on board.
Explore what’s in Jade 2025 R1
A quick reminder that Jade 2025 R1 is available. If you haven’t upgraded yet, the release includes improvements across IDE navigation, Direct REST, Orb, .NET support, and the Event Stream Producer. Full details are available on our website.
Planning for Jade Velocity 2026 is underway, and registration is open. Whether you’re a long-time platform developer, part of our partner network, or simply curious about what’s ahead for Jade, this is the key event for our community.
Our free online course remains available to anyone wanting an introduction to Jade or a quick refresher. It covers the fundamentals and can be completed at your own pace. It’s a simple way to build confidence with the platform, alongside other resources like AskJ, which offers on-demand support as you continue your learning journey.
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