Craig Piggott: Halter founder and CEO on the company raising $165 million in funding

Halter, a New Zealand tech company specialising in virtual fencing and animal management technology, has raised $165 million in a Series D fundraising round, valuing the company at $1.65 billion.

Started in 2016, Halter’s solar-powered, smart collars were guiding thousands of cattle by sound and vibration cues, allowing farmers to get rid of fencing on paddocks.

CEO and founder Craig Piggott says the technology helps farmers be more productive - and sustainable.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
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Speaker 2 (00:16):
If you haven't heard of the company Halter, remember that
name because this could be our next key, big key
we invention that's going to go bank gangbusters. The company
just raised one hundred and sixty five million dollars in
a funding round. Halter is now valued at a billion
US dollars, so that's one point sixty five billion New
Zealand dollars. They managed to secure backing from tech investment
company Bond, which also back the likes of Airbnb, Facebook,

(00:37):
and Spotify. And Craig Pigot is the founder and CEO
of Halter and with us.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
Now, Hey Craig, good evening, Thanks having me, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Thanks for coming in. Now, just explain to me what
you guys do is you put a little like thing
around the neck of the cow and basically create an
electronic fence where a fence doesn't exist yet.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
Yeah, we're a system for a pasty based farm. So
I think dariul b farmers on grouse with a collar
for a cow, an app on a farmer's phone, and
that collar transcales to response to Q, so we can
fence and shift them house farmers run and more productive
and sustainable farm.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Does this farmer not have to go out of mustard?
Then they could just basically shift them with the collars.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
Yes, they can do it all through through halter.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah, but how does the cow know which direction to
go in?

Speaker 3 (01:17):
Yes, so the cow listens to the collar. It has
like primary queues, which is sound vibration, and so the
cow kind of learns to respond to the sound of
the collar instead of visually seeing the fences that exist today.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Yeah, can you so it will know where the fence
is right, so it will know I can't go there
because the fence is there. Yes, but when you want
to shift them, so you've created a little electronic paddock,
Now you want to shift them to another electronic paddock.
Can you get them to move down the hill?

Speaker 3 (01:42):
It's actually like the same way we tell a cow
or guide a cow if they interact with a fence.
So if they come into a fence and we give
them feedback on left and right, and it's the same
way if we're we're shifting a cow. And that's also
where we use a vibration vibration queue to help reinforce
the right way and which way they should be walking.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
So so so if they're walking in the right direction, they
will know because if they're walking in the wrong direction,
the collar will tell them.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
Yes. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
So why is this taking off? Because it's I mean,
obviously it's going to make the job a hell of
a lot easier, isn't it. And you're not going to
have that infrastructure costs of fencing.

Speaker 3 (02:15):
I think the farming is I think just such a
critical role to a like New Zealand's economy, but also
around the world. And so when you can build a
product which helps farmers like at the heart of what
they do, which is trying to lift the productivity of
their land, then you know, those are important jobs focused
on for farmers. And so like my background and I
grew up farming, and I think that's why we you know,

(02:37):
that was kind of our I guess initial idea was
like we need to focus on productivity and kind of
the key parts of how you run a farm, and
and that's what the products become today.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
So does this make does this free up time?

Speaker 3 (02:49):
Yes, yep, it does. It automates a bunch of you
don't have to put up fence as a shift cow,
so you save time on that. But then it also
enables you to be slightly more precise, so you can
therefore lift the productivity of your pasture in your land.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Do you have set up costs? Because I haven't read
the article, it seems that you have some sort of
like you have some sort of transmission that you require, right,
so is that quite a big investment?

Speaker 3 (03:11):
It's actually it used to be once upon a time,
but these days we do put towers up on farms,
but they come in a cardboard box. Farmers clip them
together like really lego. And I think the record to
put up a tower is like twenty minutes or fifteen
minutes or something.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
Stop it. And how much are they worth?

Speaker 3 (03:27):
The towers they come as part of like and we
do like we map the farm and we give the
farmer maybe three or four towers, and so they pay
one off kind of installation fee depends on the size
of the farm and where they are. And thinks of that.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
Okay, so you have got currently in your fences quarter
of a million cows. How many cows they're in the world.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
We crossed the two hundred and fifty thousand cow milestone
I think towards the end of last year and obviously
been growing kind of since then, and the world there's
about three hundred and fifty million, so plush, best cows,
no end.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
Of expansionary opportunities here for you.

Speaker 3 (04:01):
Agriculture is obviously like a massive industry, and so yeah,
we have a long way to go. We feel like
we are just getting started on the on the journey
and on them and we're excited if we take the
impact we're seeing on our customers today and just how
they are lifting their productivity and sustainability and saving time
and it's better for the farmers and the land and
the cows, and trying to scale that through new markets

(04:21):
and things of that. We are excited to keep kind
of pushing that credit.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
What do you think you are? You're the next what?
That's a big question.

Speaker 3 (04:32):
I think we these like heaps of so many cool
companies I think out there having a huge, huge impact.
And so obviously I spent some time in rock Lab
and really at my Opeda Beck and he's been instrumental
and helping to build Holter and just I couldn't be
more grateful to Pete. But I think for us, we
just focused on farmers and agg and that industry.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
And where where was the farm that you grew up on?

Speaker 3 (04:52):
I grew up in Moronswell, well actually all around the
South work I do, but Moronsville was. It's where my
parents are today, and it's whether everything kind of started.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
Have the parents got this on the farm.

Speaker 3 (05:02):
They were the first customer for sure?

Speaker 2 (05:05):
How old are you, Cray?

Speaker 3 (05:06):
I am thirty one.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Oh I see heapes behind Jasinda Morrin's in college.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
Yeah, we didn't. There was no overlap with with Jacinda.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
But well maybe if you, you know what, you could
be the most famous Moronsville guy if you keep going
at this. Craig, thank you very much for coming in.
I really appreciate your time. Mate. That's Craig Pigot, founder
and CEO of Halter Remember the name.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
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