V1 Innovation launches Tika legal service in New Zealand

V1 Innovation has launched Tika to the public in New Zealand. The software is designed to provide independent legal representation to survivors of sexual harm.

Developed by V1 Innovation with co-founders Zoë Lawton and Alison Mau, Tika is a reporting and legal support service that also aims to identify repeat offenders through linked disclosures. The service operates through Tika Legal, an incorporated law firm, with users entering a lawyer-client relationship when they register.

The public launch follows a project that began with a question from Lawton and Mau: how to increase reporting of sexual harm while giving survivors access to legal support. V1 said the work required not only software, but also a business and operating model that could support free legal representation at scale.

Many survivors face barriers to reporting sexual harm, including distress, distrust of existing systems, and uncertainty about their options. Some may also want to know whether others have reported the same person for similar conduct, while still retaining control over their information and next steps.

V1 founders James Boult and Eoghan Neligan said that challenge shaped the platform's design from the outset. The system was built to let survivors disclose information independently, receive legal advice, and decide whether, when, and how to proceed.

"You cannot ask someone to disclose something deeply personal into a piece of software, then tell them to trust you afterwards," said James Boult, Founder, V1 Innovation.

Boult and Neligan said the project also required a funding structure that could sustain the legal service over time. That meant creating a model beyond the technology itself, linking legal process, survivor control, and information handling into a single framework.

V1 said the underlying technology can identify possible patterns across separate survivor disclosures. Any potential match is subject to legal review and survivor consent before action is taken.

"The legal protection, the way the information is gathered, the survivor's control, and the technology that makes matching possible all had to be designed as one thing from the start," said Eoghan Neligan, Founder, V1 Innovation.

Operating model

V1 described Tika as an example of the early-stage problem-solving it undertakes with founders and established businesses. Founded by Boult and Neligan, the company works on products and commercial structures in areas where there is no established model to follow.

Its previous work includes projects with One NZ, Sky, Mitre 10, and Fisher Funds, spanning loyalty, streaming, investment, retail, and insurance. In Tika, V1 sees a test case for combining software development with legal and operational design in the sensitive area of harm reporting.

That approach may have wider applications beyond sexual harm. V1 said the model developed for Tika could potentially be adapted for other serious-harm settings, including workplaces, institutions, and professional environments, although any overseas use would depend on local legal, privacy, and regulatory rules.

Trust focus

Mau said trust and trauma-informed design were central to the work. She said the platform and the wider operating model were built around the experience of survivors moving through a reporting process.

"We were blown away by how V1 approached this project - from day one, they understood that trust was the taonga and that every step a survivor takes through the reporting process has to be trauma-informed. So much love and expertise has gone into building the Tika platform and operating model from a team which really 'gets it' - even if it's something that's never existed before now," said Alison Mau, Co-founder, Tika.