Gorakoto. Welcome to Shared Lunch. I'm Garth Brain today I'm at Holter.
Now.
Halter is not a name that you will see on the nz X, but it is a name that's on the lips of people who follow startups, especially after its news that it cited a valuation of one billion US dollars in its latest capital rays a unicorn status the Kiwi Aqreitech. What's the deal there? Let's go find out. But first, there's always some important information you always need to keep in mind when investing.
Investing involves the risk you might lose the money you start with. We recommend talking to a licensed financial advisor. We also recommend reading product disclosure documents before deciding to invest. Everything you're about to see and here is current at the time of recording.
Well, I'm inside here at Halter with Andrew Fraser, who is the resident of Halter, which is just a very large and ostentatious title. We'll get into what that means, but tell me about what we see seeing here. This is the evolution of the collar that this business is based on.
Right, Yeah, So we've got the kind of five of our iterations of the Holter coller. It all started with a system of lunchbox good Kiwi product of course, and essentially one controller for one cow. And you can see
the evolutions through the ages. Our first true collar here, our first commercial collar there, which was on our first you know, first ten thousand cows or so, our P four collar which is the one that I'm holding here today as well, and then the next generation as well, P five just been launched in the last couple of months as well. So really the history of the Halter coller altogether.
Nine years, all in one spot.
Let's hear all about it up the great looking forward to it.
So, Andrew Fraser, your title Halter is President, Yes, which sounds a little grandiose. Do you really tell me all about that? Is that like a real pitch to the US market.
It is a fun title to say with a straight face. Yes, look at the at the heart of it. It's it's quite a common title in the US tech space in particular often what it means, which it is in this case as well as I look after the broad the broader commercial side of the business, so marketing sales, our global operations, so our Australian teams, our US teams, support success those types of things. So I run the commercial side.
Craig our founder CEO, much more focused on the product and engineering side of the business.
So he's trying to make the tech work and you're trying to make it pay.
Yes, great way of putting it now, he's bloody good at both sides of that, to be fair, but no, it's it's a it's a good, good team effort from us on the exec as well.
And you're you joined Holter what in the last year or so? Right?
Yes, joined last June, So just passed my one year anniversaryed.
Halter, tell me about the T shirts?
Yeah, so big tradition here is is once you pass the one year mark, you get a very beautiful Halter sweater which has got the whole sign and also your number on it. So I was I was very fortunate to be Halter one year maker number two hundred on the dot and.
I guess the plan is to double that number in the next little while.
Right, Yes, Yeah, we're in a big, big growth mode
right now. We've been building and growing really well and I think with the Series D that enables us to continue to build more product to support our farmers, improve that build our customer side of the ORG as well to again to make sure that we are supporting and keeping our farmer and ranch and welfare at the heart of everything that we do too and really invest in both our core market of New Zealand, but then also more out in Australia in the US as well.
I need to bring everybody in here and make sure they know what a Series D is and b they know exactly.
What halted us. So you might have jumped up there, sorry, but.
So Series D you're a company that's privately held, right, yes, and so that's a little something unusual for it, maybe for cheersis to be talking to because these no immediately envis stable opportunity for retail investors. It's all through kind of the wholesale side of things, and that's a pretty discrete market. Yeah. Yeah, but that's so you've effectively what
in a series of raises. I think now you're up to about two hundred and eighty nine million dollars worth of capital that have been raised for the business.
Yeah, that sounds about right. And so yeah, so the way that it's kind of worked is it as various milestones throughout the whole history, there have been these raises with investors, and I'd say especially a lot of those driven by some New Zealand investors, for example Ice House being a big driver of that. And this is our fourth of those, so ABCD and that's what we celebrated I think last week it was in terms of that new I guess influx of capital and belief in what we're doing as well.
And with that, so one hundred and sixty five million New Zealand raised in that round. Yes, you don't normally go to an E round.
Do you look never say never, And I'd say like air wall X is an interesting example. They've got a Kiwi co founder. They just closed their series if so you can still keep going. It's really up to what you need, how you're driving and you know, and and various growth metrics and things around that. But yeah, there's there's no real limit to the to the series that
you get to. And I think that eli walal x one is a is a cool, cool example of Ossie and kiwikw co founders doing bloody good work at the at the global tech stage as well.
So the tech behind Halter, Can you tell us a little bit about what is the problem you're trying to solve and what does it do Colter.
At its heart, I'd say is an is an operating system for your farm and the primary way that we do that is through a collar for cows. It's it helps you with virtual fencing and virtual herding. So instead of seeing fences, now you're hearing fences if you're a cow. So what it means is you can draw the paddock or the area that you want your cow has kept and collar will kind of keep them in that. The virtual herding side of things is similar to that, but
it actually moves your cows as well. So if you're a dairy farmer, the way that it works is you say, hey, you know, I want my cows at the dairy shehed at four thirty am to start the milking and they will be there waiting for you when you arrive. And as I said, that all happens kind of via sound
and vibration. We also help you grow and graze more pasture too, So because of how you can move the cows and keep the cows and our past GAO metrics that we supply in things as well, we help you grow and graze more grass, which means that you either get more milk production, so that eating more grass, they're making more milk, or on the beef side of things, that eating more grass so they are getting fatter, which
you get money from as well. Other things the colar can do is you know, heat detection, so it helps with the reproduction side of things, the health side, so we give early warning to say, hey, you might have a lame cow or a sick how and a lot of other things from there. But at the heart of it, it really is that kind of operating system for cows.
I guess people probably don't understand quite how complicated and how many decisions that a farmer in their business has to make right that they're literally trying to get very very fine judgments out of the soil, the ground, the pasture, the weather conditions, the condition of whatever mobile herd that they're running. All of that is pretty tricky. So I mean, how do they do it without this?
Yeah? Oh, look, I'd say as a starting point, I think farmers are remarkable folks and the care that they universally have for their land and for their animals is amazing to see. And maybe if I slightly diverge and then I promise I'll come back and answer the question like, I didn't grow up on a farm, but my cousin, he's my best mate. He's a dairy farmer, and so kind of put myself through university milking with him in the in the Uni holidays, and even in my first job.
You know, if I had a pretty tough week, I'd go down and milk with him, and that was kind of my happy place. And so I'd been able to see firsthand how hard farmers are working and how much they are they are thinking about this right so right now, they might have a big whiteboard and their cowshed measuring their round length, or that going out with a plate meter which measures their grass growth after every feed and
before every feed to kind of understand these things. Or they're spending hours a day with reels and standards, so you know, like pigtails and electric wire to put up around their farm to kind of get the optimal amount of grass and each break for each mob of cows. So incredibly laborious, and you know, I like to think that no one goes into into farming to follow cows behind on a four by four or to put up reels.
They go there to get the most out of their grass or to you know, get the most milk production, or to spend more time with their animals and their land. And so we really enable that in a much quicker, more accurate way via our app, which is kind of part of that whole system as well.
And I guess so it's not just a device, but then obviously it's a series of subscriptions and data that sit behind it that are possibly where some of the values coming from here.
Yeah, and for them spot on and I'd say that the yeah, it's the reason they call it an operating system is it really is a hardware plus software solution for the farmer. And so the app it's been it's been built to be as easy to use for farmers as possible. We've got one of my favorite farmers, Pete Morgan, his ninety i think ninety three year old mum sits there at home and kind of is using the app and having a look at it where all the cows are. The flip side of it is we've got a lot
of farms. There's a guy ross Minson and Canterbury. His daughter's at boarding school and she's calling him every night to be like, what's happening with this cow or why is this cor to break? And I just I love it and it really is that kind of enabler for all generations of farmers to be able to kind of get a view of their farm really quickly and then make really strong decisions around productivity and sustainability really easily as well.
Because it's probably not replacing actually being on the land, walking around taking a look at the conditions yourself.
Yeah. Absolutely, And i'd say, you know, great farmers are on the farm more with Halter, right, So they are when they're coaching their their farm, their farm managers or farm workers, they are instead of having to rush to do everything, and it's all very much like do this, then do that, then do that. You can actually step back and I think you can actually take back control
of farming as well. So the love and life they're getting back on farm, we've heard from a number of farmers that it's brought that kind of joy back back to farming for them. Another thing that I'd say we've seen here in farming in New Zealand in general is a shift of young people away from farming as a career because it is it's tough hours, right, it's early starts. It's hard work, and I think this is really we're seeing much more and more younger people come into this.
We hear a lot of stories about, you know, leaving a farm and wanting to work on other whole to farms, you know, So it's kind of it's a retention tool in the industry as well. And that's all because, as I say, it takes those jobs that aren't value adding jobs away and it replaces it with a great toolkit that brings you closer to the land and closer to your animals.
I'm thinking about that example you gave before about the young woman talking to a dad. I imagine that for a lot of farmers, that's great to hear. A lot of them are probably watching their kids saying I'm not interested remotely in taking on millions tens of millions of dollars worth of debt to try and run this place. And I don't know, maybe I'm just not that familiar with all of the stuff that you're doing on farm. So the app is a way to what try and give them another doorway into that spot on.
Yeah, And I think that's look I'm I reckon, I'm the luckiest person at Halter. I'm on the road at least every second week right now, every week with our teams on farm and just listening to our farmers and their stories. And you know, for some it's like what brought them into Halter. For some, it's what keeps them at Halter. For others, it's you know, potential new business
to say what Halter could mean for them. And I do think that that succession piece is a big one for a lot of farmers, you know, in terms of bringing that next generation on, giving them the tools and the excitement about what it looks like. For some, it's
you know, extending farming. I was with a lovely couple down in the Bay of Plenty recently who were in their sixties, and they were like, we love farming, but we know that, you know, like when I've got to I've got to get up on a step ladder to do my like the reproduction side of business, and I don't like doing it at this age, and so like this will keep us in farming for another five years.
And I just, you know, it's pretty special being able to get out and hear those stories for an industry that's so important as a key where you're to New Zealand pretty special to kind of hear how alter can kind of make that improvement from people's life.
What sort of penetration have you got then into New Zealand obviously it's the main market, it's the home market. Where are you at?
Look, what I'd say is we're just getting started in certain in certain communities, in certain kind of places, we've got you know, one in every three farms, for example. In others it's a lot earlier, a lot earlier stage, and we're really seeing it. It is that kind of
community growth almost is what we're seeing. So farmers trust and believe in other farmers, and so what you start to see is, you know, you get a few hold of farms, then the next or ahbor kind of comes over, has a bit of a look and sees what the store warriors and gets a bit excited, and then you kind of get that farm and then that farm, and so there's this big almost network effect there of farms seeing the products, seeing the impact, seeing you know, the
mum and dad on the netball courts on the Saturday, whereas previously you'd only ever have one parent and now they can both get off farm or going to Fiji for a week for their first holiday and years because they can still monitor, so they've still got that trust. But then you know their farm manager can kind of or farm workers can do the work, and that's our
biggest thing. So what we'd see is in areas where we've got that minimum penetration where we start to see that, that's where you really get that network effect and get that really rapid growth that we've been seeing.
Would you expect to see the same sort of thing in the US, though much bigger market, very very different situation, different farming systems, different culture. How is it going to go there? It's going really well so far.
At the heart of it, it's a universal truth. I think that farmers and ranches over there, we use the term ranchers farmers are a very different thing over there. Farmers and ranches care for their land, care for their animals as a starting point, and so at the heart we still see that. I have been in many conversations with US ranches on the ground over there and they actually go very similarly to a New Zealand farmer just
from a few years ago. So the kind of the understanding of the product is still in its infancy it's not like here where we're at field days a few weeks ago. Every farmer that came into the tent knew what halter was, knew a little bit about it, knew what kind of value it could provide. We're not at that stage yet in the US. There's still that educational piece, educational phase to it. The other thing about the US which I found interesting is we're pretty much selling to
beef farms only. Something like ninety five percent of US dairy is not pasture based. So we're a pasture based company. We help cows on grass. Ninety five percent of cows in the dairy industry in the USA are not on grass. They're in barns or feed lots, and so that's not really our target market over there. It's really those those classical cows on the range. That's who we're dealing with,
that kind of the cattle side of things. There so a few differences there, but on the whole we're actually seeing that you know, a conversation in the US is not so dissimilar to a conversation in New Zealand.
But there'd be a lot of feed lot feeding out for those beef cattle as well, right so I wonder, I mean, how big is the market there, given that pasture doesn't have the same kind of role in the US, how big is that total addressable market.
It's a big one, so i'd say for the US it's kind of that one and a half two billion dollars of total addressable market, so maybe one and a half double New Zealand. That's why we are at a very privileged good position here in New Zealand with our brilliant pasture based farmers and you know on the dairy side and the beef side of things that you know, we are a startup that was able to build our
product in a really really big, advanced market. Like i'd say, New Zealand farmers are the best farmers in the world in many respects and when it comes to pasture based farming, and it's a really really big market. So we were lucky we could grow here, we could test our product here and it's not puny or irrelevant compared to the rest of the world. So New Zealand core market. But yeah, US beef it is big. What I would say is, yes, there can be some like feedlock finishing. I'm getting really
into the farming minutia, so bear with me. You can get some feedlot finishing, so a cow might live, you know, ninety five percent of their life on grass and then finish at a feed lot. But we're still working with it during that majority of life, you know, out on the ranges, out on the prairies, really extensive beef farms. That's really the core of what we're doing over there in the US.
Does the technology perform the same on the ground there that it would here.
Yeah, it's the same collar, so we use the same collar on a cow, regardless of it's New Zealand, Australia, the US beef tear. It's all the same. So at the heart of it, the hardware is the same, software largely the same. You know, they use different language for certain things farmers, ranches, paddocks, pastures, all of those things. So there's a few little tweaks there, but for the most part, it's all the exact same piece. I'd say the big difference is there, like us on a ranch
in Wyoming recently, which was one hundred thousand hectares. Now, you know, a typical dairy farm in the Wykado is maybe a hundred hectares, so you know, a thousandfold difference in size, but on the whole, the product's still doing the same thing. We're still supporting pasture based animals. You might go at a slightly different manner, but at the heart it's quite nice that it's all that same piece.
There are other countries in the world where pasture is a big deal, like Ireland is one example, big dairy industry, very similar to New Zealand. Where's that on the list?
Yeah, oh, there are some fantastic other markets that I
think we'll get to one day. I know it's a bit of a cheesy answer, but you know there's a lot of cows in New Zealand, Australia, in the US, and so that's very much our priority right now is is is doing a really really good job in those three markets, and then yes, other markets will come, but yeah, we've we've we've still got a lot of a long way to go in those three markets to make it really good for our for our farmers and for our customers.
So yeah, I'm just trying to understand a little bit as well, like most people, what it means as a company that's a startup to reach a point where you can say you're you're worth a billion dollars. That's kind of a big moment for a startup. Right Unicorn status, I think is what we call it. Yeah, how do you put some confidence around that number?
Yeah, I would say there's there's probably the The internal answer is that for us, it's it's a it's an exciting thing. I think it's validation for the team and for the farmers that believed in us and those things. It's just a point in the journey, right, Like, we are so excited about what we're building here. The feedback we get from farmers like you know you we're you know the warehouse that I'm looking at right now, Like it's we're building something really special. That's what drives us.
This is as I said, it's it's exciting, it's cool. It's validation for some folks, but really it's just a milestone and our journey and we can't wait to keep building really cool stuff. And that's that's i'd say the priority of everybody you chat to here at Alter as well.
I guess the question there was around, so you've got a company here which you're telling people is worth a billion dollars. Who's saying that what confidence are they expressing in that number.
At the heart of it, the investment or the number that we're talking about here does come from from our investors. The company that's leading the Series D for US as a company called bond So US VC company. They spun out of Kline Perkins so one of the biggest about ten years ago, and have invested in some of the biggest startup scale ups tech companies of the past ten.
Years, name checking like you know Airbnb, can the couple of other ones I can probably think about if I checked the notes.
Yes, spot on so the Yeah, they've been there, done that with some pretty special tech companies. That's one of the things that US drew them to us was their pretty special history in terms of execution and growth of those companies. But I think the flip of that is when they look at us, you know, our factor is our revenue and our revenue growth. That's a big, big way to kind of build that valuation the you know, our impact in the US market and how we've managed
to grow that quickly and sustainably over there. But I think the other piece that really hit home for them and they presented this back to us, was was the impact that we do have on farmers and ranches as well. I think they talked to over twenty farmers and ranches across New Zealand, Australia in the US as part of their due diligence in US and to understand us. The feedback was the way that you know, farmers would only farm with Halter or could only farm with Halter, who
stay in farming too because of Halter. They passed on a story about a farmer here in New Zealand that have had that had had Halter for five weeks and they were saying that he just can't imagine farming without Halter. And I think it's those pieces that really hit home to them how important this product could be globally. And so you put all those together and that's how we kind of that's how they get to that valuation.
I guess we are seeing. I mean, you know, farming has already always been about adopting technology and moving things forward. You know, Cheersys in particular, I think has got a relationship running with Fonterra. It enables a lot of people that have shareholding there to manage that effectively. You've introduced some things as well, specifically for Fonterra farmers to try and make things work. What's going on there a.
Few pieces here. One we are using Halter on a few Fonterra farms, so that's going live kind of as we speak right now, and that's because I think Fonterra see the benefit in this, but they also want to be able to talk to their farmers about it as well.
And we've also been we've integrated all Fonterra milk production into the Holter app as well, So if you know, you can look at your app, you can see, ah, during this period of time, our cows were grazing a little bit more or grazing and ruminating a little bit more, and that's had a real impact for us in terms
of our milk production. So it starts to tie a few of those pieces together so that you can actually see both the work that you do as a farmer how that then impacts milk production, which then obvious see how that impacts your revenue as well. So it's a great window into that. So again you can kind of upskill as a farmer. You can get fairly real time input into all of this, and you can tie the actions and the activities that you're doing with what it means for you from a bottom line perspective.
You talked about how I mean launching here in New Zealand was really really important obviously for this because it's so well aligned with dairy and so on. I mean, is there something particular about this part of the world Here in Australia. I read that we get a much greater kind of uptake in terms of startups from every dollar of venture capital money that's put in there compared to places like the US. Any ideas about why that might be.
Yeah, Look, it's I think there is an element of good old Kiui ingenuity. I've got a theory as well that you know, we are kind of squirreled away at the bottom of the world here. You know, it's four hours to get anywhere. It's longer to get even you know, further than a Australia and so that there is that kind of you know, innovation or desire for growth down here.
I think there's a pretty cool ecosystem, you know, Like I for example, I was at ven for vin for a few years and then we got acquired for about half a billion Kiwi and you know, you can see some vin people in the in the market, like you know, helping in some of these companies. Now you've seen the same for Trade me and zero and these other kind of these exciting pieces, so we're starting to see that grow.
I also think that, you know, there's a there's a good seed investment kind of community here as well, so helps get those startups up and running and and and kind of creating value in things as well. So you know, I think, yeah, I think New Zealand's a pretty special place in terms of a lot of those things. Going a bit off topic, I do think we should be doing more in that agri tech space. You know that New Zealand is brilliant at agriculture, is brilliant at tech.
There are some really cool ag tech startups here in New Zealand. But I'd love to see even more as well, because I think we are uniquely placed here to be building and driving some special stuff in that in that ag tech space.
While you've been telling me that, I checked my notes, one point two two unicorns. For every billion of VC cash invested in Australia, one point in New Zealand and in the US, it's about two thirds of a unicorn per billion. So I guess what I'm saying. It sounds like we're batting above the averages here.
Oh cool, I hadn't heard that before. That's exciting.
Yeah, does that? I mean? Is that just because people tend to stay in the network and keep investing, because obviously, this is the kind of capital we're talking about is not immediately available to retail investors at the moment. It's not something that anyone can just leap on an app and take a punt on. Can you see that changing?
Yeah? I think over time. I think that would be really great to see. I think that there is that. I like how you put it, that kind of re investment here. You know, like one of our early investors and a real mentor to Craig was Sir Peter Beck for example. You know, he built something special, he reinvested it. In terms of that, I'd say another one is, you know Sam more than from trade Me built something special there exited and he was a really key part of my vend story. You know, he was one of the
main investors. He was one of the most vocal folks on the board. And so I think there is like that's one of the most special elements. But yeah, I think I think in terms of retail investors, the more that folks are seeing or having access to startup scale ups, I think it's an exciting piece. And especially when you think about it from a Cheersay's perspective and an investment perspective,
like having a pretty broad portfolio is good. So getting more and more stuff in that early stage is also I think a win for folks.
I guess there's a lot of risk attached to investments like that, so absolutely why they sit in the sort of the wholesale side of things where effectively completely different system set up to to to identify those investments. Yeah, so we're too from here, What's what's what's what's the next step?
Yeah? Look, as I said earlier, like I think it's it's it's about growing and building. We've got a really exciting, cool product and something I'm very proud of, and I think the team here is proud of and our farmers are proud of, and so I'm I'm just excited to get it, you know, on as many farms as possible and as many farmers using it and helping us grow and improve it going forward as well. So that's Uh, that's that's the plan is where it's still it's still early.
There's there's a long way to go, and so we've just got to keep being focused, keep doing bloody good stuff every day. And yeah, pretty pretty pumped at what it can mean for us.
It sounds like you're telling me it's a little too soon to talk about things like an IPO, whether the companies headed to the NASDAK headed off suore to try and raise its capital from the public ultimately, or what sort of shape Holter winds up in.
Yeah. So, look, we're very much a KEYWI company and our headquarters here, all of our engineers are here, and that's gonna that that's going to be our focus for the next wee. While down the road, who knows, absolutely, you know, could consider that that Nasdaq or IPO path could also go more the Stripe SpaceX route of staying private and profitable. But right now the focus is really on that kind of that building, continuing to make Halters
as amazing as possible for our farmers and ranches. And I think that's what it excites everyone here on a day to day basis.
Andrew Fraser Halter President, Gosh, that's I'm getting used to that title, so thank you for your time.
Really appreciate it. Mate, Thank you so much.
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