Ranch automation startup Halter raises $100M to expand into the U.S. – News

Cow technology startup Halter Inc. has become one of only a handful of New Zealand-based unicorns after closing on a $100 million funding round that values it at $1 billion, it said today.

Today’s Series D round, which was led by the technology investment firm Bond Ventures, will help Halter to ramp up its expansion into the U.S. farming industry, it said. Bessemer Venture Partners, DCVC, Blackbird and Icehouse Ventures also participated in the round.

The cattle industry has remained relatively stable this year at a time when many other industries have been rocked by economic concerns stemming from U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs, due in part to its growing reliance on technology for automation. According to the startup, cattle-based products such as dairy and beef generate more than $1.57 trillion in revenue globally.

Auckland-based Halter believes it can help farmers to increase their profitability by providing them with a kind of digital operating system that relies on a mobile application and solar energy-powered smart collars that are worn by each cow in a herd. The company also installs connectivity towers on the farmer’s grazing land, allowing them to monitor each cow and control its movements via sound and vibration cues.

The technology is known as “virtual fencing”, and it lets farmers steer their cattle to the best grazing land, with the result being that they’re better fed. Halter also claims the tech can help to reduce the environmental impact of grazing.

Halter says its technology has already been widely adopted by farmers in Australian states Queensland and Tasmania, and is expecting to expand to New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria once upcoming regulatory changes that permit the use of virtual fencing come into effect.

The startup says it employs more than 200 people in New Zealand, Australia and the United States, where it’s working with around 150 ranchers in 18 states. It will use the funds from today’s round to accelerate its U.S. expansion.

Halter founder and Chief Executive Craig Piggot said there’s an urgent need for the company’s technology, with more than half of all U.S. ranchers and farmers being aged over 55 and struggling with labor shortages. “Halter enables smaller teams to manage herds more efficiently, without constant physical presence,” he explained.

The labor shortage on U.S. farms is believed to have worsened due to Trump’s immigration crackdown, which has heavily impacted an industry that has long been reliant on immigrant workers. Yet the industry itself remains vitally important, feeding billions of people, said Bond General Partner Dagwon Chae.

“Ranches feed billions of people but they are constrained by traditional bottlenecks of the offline economy – labor, time and limited automation,” Chae said. “Halter’s vision is ambitious and impactful, to build the digital operating system for farms and ranches globally.”

Photos: Halter