Aussie ASX hopeful collapses into liquidation after shareholders invest $13.8m

An Australian company that profited off protecting its users from savage shark attacks has gone bust.

An Australian company that protected surfers, swimmers and divers from shark attacks has collapsed.

At the end of last week, Ocean Guardian, based in NSW, went into liquidation.

The retailer, headquartered in Sydney’s Northern Beaches, has been in business since 2002 and is perhaps best known for its innovative ‘Shark Shield’ shark repellent device, which kept its users safe from vicious or fatal shark attacks.

The Shark Shield tech, which sells for around $800, worked by disrupting the highly sensitive receptors in sharks’ snouts using an electric field, making the shark turn away from the area – but would leave the animal with no permanent damage.

The tech was popular with ocean adventurers, with some divers not daring to venture into the deep blue without their device.

Some big names had also thrown their weight behind Ocean Guardan, like Tom Carroll a two-time World Surfing Champion, who was a shareholder and brand ambassador.

The West Australian government was also a proponent of the device, offering a $200 rebate for the purchase of a shark shield to reduce vicious and fatal shark attacks in its beaches.

However, the ocean company was on the rocks in recent years.

Ocean Guardian shared this image on its social media and said the black dots on the shark’s snout are the sensors they disrupt.

Ocean Guardian had twice tried to make its mark on the Australian Stock Exchange, first trying to debut on the ASX in 2018 and then again in 2022.

But each time it failed, leaving the ocean investor scrambling for money.

The business was on the precipice of securing $5 million from a “ultra high net worth” investor but this fell through in April this year.

As a result, in May, Ocean Ocean Guardian appointed Olga Litosh of insolvency firm Quartz Advisory as an administrator.

To make matters more complicated, the company also went into receivership in May, with the appointed receiver, Andrew Quinn of Mackay Goodwin, taking over Ocean Guardian.

That meant the business ceased to trade with receivers taking control of the company’s assets.

According to a report the administrator submitted to Australia’s corporate regulator, the business owes $602,000 to creditors.

A whopping $13.8 million had been invested into the company from a pool of around 150 shareholders.

Ocean Guardian incurred losses of $1.2 million in the 2023 financial year and lost a further $336,000 in the most recent reporting period.

Then last Friday, creditors voted to wind up the company and place it into liquidation.

Ms Litosh has been contacted for comment.

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The tech was founded in South Africa originally, the great white shark capital of the world.

A diver uses the speargun-esque looking Shark Shield.

Ocean Guardian’s shark repellent technology was first developed in the 1990s in South Africa, a location renowned for having one of the world’s biggest populations of great white sharks.

The Shark Shield tech was made as part of a partnership deal with the KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board.

In 2001, it was licenced to then-South Australian company SeaChange Technologies.

The company moved its headquarters to NSW and changed its name to Ocean Guardian.

It produced a number of other devices, not just the shield, such as ankle straps, surfboard attachments and power modules.

Last year, it offered a 10 per cent storewide sale.

The brand boasts 7000 followers on its social media but hasn’t posted since last year.

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Originally published as Aussie ASX hopeful collapses into liquidation after shareholders invest $13.8m