Founders Fund – a fund that includes giants like Facebook, SpaceX and Palantir – has turned its attention to an unusual startup this time. The fund led a $220 million investment round in New Zealand-based Halter, valuing the startup at $2 billion.
Founded by 30-year-old founder Craig Piggott, Halter has developed solar-powered smart collars for managing livestock. The system allows farmers to create virtual fences – farmers can now direct their animals without dogs, horses or machinery simply via a mobile app.
The collars work with sound and vibration signals, and the animals quickly adapt to these signals. At the same time, the devices continuously collect data to monitor the health of the animals, identify disease risks and reproductive cycles. Halter claims to have collected the world's largest collection of livestock behavior data in this area.
The company's technology is already used on more than 1 million animals and is implemented on more than 2,000 farms in 22 states, including the United States, as well as in Australia and New Zealand. The approach is claimed to increase soil fertility by up to 20%, and in some cases, it can double production.
Halter’s solution is not unique on the market. Merck is working on a similar system called Vence, and other startups are experimenting with drones to manage livestock. However, Piggott believes that the main challenge is not technology, but farmers’ reluctance to abandon old methods.
Halter, which has raised about $400 million in investment to date, plans to expand into the US, South America and Europe. But the company still has a huge opportunity: there are more than 1 billion cattle in the world, and Halter has only reached a very small part of that market.
