New Zealand agtech scaleup Halter has raised $314.5 million in a Series E that values the livestock management platform at US$2 billion (A$2.86bn).
The round was led by Founders Fund, supported by other existing US investors, including DCVC, Bond, Bessemer, Promus, Ubiquity and NewView, as well as Kiwi funds Blackbird and Icehouse.
Founders Fund is the 21-year-old San Francisco VC that backed SpaceX, Palantir, Stripe, Airbnb and Facebook. It was cofounded by prominent “Paypal mafia” billionaire Peter Thiel. A key backer of the Trump administration, Thiel has New Zealand citizenship and has been trying to build a “doomsday bunker” near Queenstown on the country’s South Island, but the libertarian tech oligarch and Palantir cofounder told Joe Rogan in 2024, just as he helped install JD Vance as US vice president, that he was contemplating moving to New Zealand permanently.
Mechanical engineer Craig Piggott launched Halter in 2016, aged 22, with the support from his former boss, Peter Beck, at Rocket Lab. The virtual fencing and animal management system uses a GPS-enabled solar collar that “guides” cows around pastures using sound and vibrations. An app lets farmers manage their cattle and pasture from their phone.
Halter hit unicorn status – a $1 billion+ valuation in June last year, following a $155 million Series D led by Mary Meeker’s Bond. The latest raise doubles the valuation in just nine months
Halter’s VC investments include a A$79.5m (NZ$85m) Series C in 2023 and A$29m (NZ$32m) in a Series B in 2021. Founders Fund first invested in the startup’s 2018 $7m Series A.
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More than 2,000 farmers in Australia, NZ and the US are Halter customers and the fresh capital will be used for market expansion in Australia and the States as well as other countries, with Ireland and the UK on the drawing board for 2026.
The scaleup also plans to hire 200-plus people in the product, engineering, and customer teams, based at its Auckland HQ.