Speaker 1: Gorakoto. Welcome to Shared Lunch. I'm Garth Brain today I'm
Speaker 1: at Holter.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Halter is not a name that you will see on
Speaker 1: the nz X, but it is a name that's on
Speaker 1: the lips of people who follow startups, especially after its
Speaker 1: news that it cited a valuation of one billion US
Speaker 1: dollars in its latest capital rays a unicorn status the
Speaker 1: Kiwi Aqreitech. What's the deal there? Let's go find out.
Speaker 1: But first, there's always some important information you always need
Speaker 1: to keep in mind when investing.
Speaker 3: Investing involves the risk you might lose the money you
Speaker 3: start with. We recommend talking to a licensed financial advisor.
Speaker 3: We also recommend reading product disclosure documents before deciding to invest.
Speaker 3: Everything you're about to see and here is current at
Speaker 3: the time of recording.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm inside here at Halter with Andrew Fraser, who
Speaker 1: is the resident of Halter, which is just a very
Speaker 1: large and ostentatious title. We'll get into what that means,
Speaker 1: but tell me about what we see seeing here. This
Speaker 1: is the evolution of the collar that this business is
Speaker 1: based on.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, So we've got the kind of five of
Speaker 2: our iterations of the Holter coller. It all started with
Speaker 2: a system of lunchbox good Kiwi product of course, and
Speaker 2: essentially one controller for one cow. And you can see
Speaker 2: the evolutions through the ages. Our first true collar here,
Speaker 2: our first commercial collar there, which was on our first
Speaker 2: you know, first ten thousand cows or so, our P
Speaker 2: four collar which is the one that I'm holding here
Speaker 2: today as well, and then the next generation as well,
Speaker 2: P five just been launched in the last couple of
Speaker 2: months as well. So really the history of the Halter
Speaker 2: coller altogether.
Speaker 1: Nine years, all in one spot.
Speaker 2: Let's hear all about it up the great looking forward
Speaker 2: to it.
Speaker 1: So, Andrew Fraser, your title Halter is President, Yes, which
Speaker 1: sounds a little grandiose. Do you really tell me all
Speaker 1: about that? Is that like a real pitch to the
Speaker 1: US market.
Speaker 2: It is a fun title to say with a straight face. Yes,
Speaker 2: look at the at the heart of it. It's it's
Speaker 2: quite a common title in the US tech space in
Speaker 2: particular often what it means, which it is in this
Speaker 2: case as well as I look after the broad the
Speaker 2: broader commercial side of the business, so marketing sales, our
Speaker 2: global operations, so our Australian teams, our US teams, support
Speaker 2: success those types of things. So I run the commercial side.
Speaker 2: Craig our founder CEO, much more focused on the product
Speaker 2: and engineering side of the business.
Speaker 1: So he's trying to make the tech work and you're
Speaker 1: trying to make it pay.
Speaker 2: Yes, great way of putting it now, he's bloody good
Speaker 2: at both sides of that, to be fair, but no,
Speaker 2: it's it's a it's a good, good team effort from
Speaker 2: us on the exec as well.
Speaker 1: And you're you joined Holter what in the last year
Speaker 1: or so? Right?
Speaker 2: Yes, joined last June, So just passed my one year anniversaryed.
Speaker 1: Halter, tell me about the T shirts?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so big tradition here is is once you pass
Speaker 2: the one year mark, you get a very beautiful Halter
Speaker 2: sweater which has got the whole sign and also your
Speaker 2: number on it. So I was I was very fortunate
Speaker 2: to be Halter one year maker number two hundred on
Speaker 2: the dot and.
Speaker 1: I guess the plan is to double that number in
Speaker 1: the next little while.
Speaker 2: Right, Yes, Yeah, we're in a big, big growth mode
Speaker 2: right now. We've been building and growing really well and
Speaker 2: I think with the Series D that enables us to
Speaker 2: continue to build more product to support our farmers, improve
Speaker 2: that build our customer side of the ORG as well
Speaker 2: to again to make sure that we are supporting and
Speaker 2: keeping our farmer and ranch and welfare at the heart
Speaker 2: of everything that we do too and really invest in
Speaker 2: both our core market of New Zealand, but then also
Speaker 2: more out in Australia in the US as well.
Speaker 1: I need to bring everybody in here and make sure
Speaker 1: they know what a Series D is and b they
Speaker 1: know exactly.
Speaker 2: What halted us. So you might have jumped up there, sorry, but.
Speaker 1: So Series D you're a company that's privately held, right, yes,
Speaker 1: and so that's a little something unusual for it, maybe
Speaker 1: for cheersis to be talking to because these no immediately
Speaker 1: envis stable opportunity for retail investors. It's all through kind
Speaker 1: of the wholesale side of things, and that's a pretty
Speaker 1: discrete market. Yeah. Yeah, but that's so you've effectively what
Speaker 1: in a series of raises. I think now you're up
Speaker 1: to about two hundred and eighty nine million dollars worth
Speaker 1: of capital that have been raised for the business.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that sounds about right. And so yeah, so the
Speaker 2: way that it's kind of worked is it as various
Speaker 2: milestones throughout the whole history, there have been these raises
Speaker 2: with investors, and I'd say especially a lot of those
Speaker 2: driven by some New Zealand investors, for example Ice House
Speaker 2: being a big driver of that. And this is our
Speaker 2: fourth of those, so ABCD and that's what we celebrated
Speaker 2: I think last week it was in terms of that
Speaker 2: new I guess influx of capital and belief in what
Speaker 2: we're doing as well.
Speaker 1: And with that, so one hundred and sixty five million
Speaker 1: New Zealand raised in that round. Yes, you don't normally
Speaker 1: go to an E round.
Speaker 2: Do you look never say never, And I'd say like
Speaker 2: air wall X is an interesting example. They've got a
Speaker 2: Kiwi co founder. They just closed their series if so
Speaker 2: you can still keep going. It's really up to what
Speaker 2: you need, how you're driving and you know, and and
Speaker 2: various growth metrics and things around that. But yeah, there's
Speaker 2: there's no real limit to the to the series that
Speaker 2: you get to. And I think that eli walal x
Speaker 2: one is a is a cool, cool example of Ossie
Speaker 2: and kiwikw co founders doing bloody good work at the
Speaker 2: at the global tech stage as well.
Speaker 1: So the tech behind Halter, Can you tell us a
Speaker 1: little bit about what is the problem you're trying to
Speaker 1: solve and what does it do Colter.
Speaker 2: At its heart, I'd say is an is an operating
Speaker 2: system for your farm and the primary way that we
Speaker 2: do that is through a collar for cows. It's it
Speaker 2: helps you with virtual fencing and virtual herding. So instead
Speaker 2: of seeing fences, now you're hearing fences if you're a cow.
Speaker 2: So what it means is you can draw the paddock
Speaker 2: or the area that you want your cow has kept
Speaker 2: and collar will kind of keep them in that. The
Speaker 2: virtual herding side of things is similar to that, but
Speaker 2: it actually moves your cows as well. So if you're
Speaker 2: a dairy farmer, the way that it works is you say, hey,
Speaker 2: you know, I want my cows at the dairy shehed
Speaker 2: at four thirty am to start the milking and they
Speaker 2: will be there waiting for you when you arrive. And
Speaker 2: as I said, that all happens kind of via sound
Speaker 2: and vibration. We also help you grow and graze more
Speaker 2: pasture too, So because of how you can move the
Speaker 2: cows and keep the cows and our past GAO metrics
Speaker 2: that we supply in things as well, we help you
Speaker 2: grow and graze more grass, which means that you either
Speaker 2: get more milk production, so that eating more grass, they're
Speaker 2: making more milk, or on the beef side of things,
Speaker 2: that eating more grass so they are getting fatter, which
Speaker 2: you get money from as well. Other things the colar
Speaker 2: can do is you know, heat detection, so it helps
Speaker 2: with the reproduction side of things, the health side, so
Speaker 2: we give early warning to say, hey, you might have
Speaker 2: a lame cow or a sick how and a lot
Speaker 2: of other things from there. But at the heart of
Speaker 2: it, it really is that kind of operating system for cows.
Speaker 1: I guess people probably don't understand quite how complicated and
Speaker 1: how many decisions that a farmer in their business has
Speaker 1: to make right that they're literally trying to get very
Speaker 1: very fine judgments out of the soil, the ground, the pasture,
Speaker 1: the weather conditions, the condition of whatever mobile herd that
Speaker 1: they're running. All of that is pretty tricky. So I mean,
Speaker 1: how do they do it without this?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Oh, look, I'd say as a starting point, I
Speaker 2: think farmers are remarkable folks and the care that they
Speaker 2: universally have for their land and for their animals is
Speaker 2: amazing to see. And maybe if I slightly diverge and
Speaker 2: then I promise I'll come back and answer the question like,
Speaker 2: I didn't grow up on a farm, but my cousin,
Speaker 2: he's my best mate. He's a dairy farmer, and so
Speaker 2: kind of put myself through university milking with him in
Speaker 2: the in the Uni holidays, and even in my first job.
Speaker 2: You know, if I had a pretty tough week, I'd
Speaker 2: go down and milk with him, and that was kind
Speaker 2: of my happy place. And so I'd been able to
Speaker 2: see firsthand how hard farmers are working and how much
Speaker 2: they are they are thinking about this right so right now,
Speaker 2: they might have a big whiteboard and their cowshed measuring
Speaker 2: their round length, or that going out with a plate
Speaker 2: meter which measures their grass growth after every feed and
Speaker 2: before every feed to kind of understand these things. Or
Speaker 2: they're spending hours a day with reels and standards, so
Speaker 2: you know, like pigtails and electric wire to put up
Speaker 2: around their farm to kind of get the optimal amount
Speaker 2: of grass and each break for each mob of cows.
Speaker 2: So incredibly laborious, and you know, I like to think
Speaker 2: that no one goes into into farming to follow cows
Speaker 2: behind on a four by four or to put up reels.
Speaker 2: They go there to get the most out of their
Speaker 2: grass or to you know, get the most milk production,
Speaker 2: or to spend more time with their animals and their land.
Speaker 2: And so we really enable that in a much quicker,
Speaker 2: more accurate way via our app, which is kind of
Speaker 2: part of that whole system as well.
Speaker 1: And I guess so it's not just a device, but
Speaker 1: then obviously it's a series of subscriptions and data that
Speaker 1: sit behind it that are possibly where some of the
Speaker 1: values coming from here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and for them spot on and I'd say that
Speaker 2: the yeah, it's the reason they call it an operating
Speaker 2: system is it really is a hardware plus software solution
Speaker 2: for the farmer. And so the app it's been it's
Speaker 2: been built to be as easy to use for farmers
Speaker 2: as possible. We've got one of my favorite farmers, Pete Morgan,
Speaker 2: his ninety i think ninety three year old mum sits
Speaker 2: there at home and kind of is using the app
Speaker 2: and having a look at it where all the cows are.
Speaker 2: The flip side of it is we've got a lot
Speaker 2: of farms. There's a guy ross Minson and Canterbury. His
Speaker 2: daughter's at boarding school and she's calling him every night
Speaker 2: to be like, what's happening with this cow or why
Speaker 2: is this cor to break? And I just I love
Speaker 2: it and it really is that kind of enabler for
Speaker 2: all generations of farmers to be able to kind of
Speaker 2: get a view of their farm really quickly and then
Speaker 2: make really strong decisions around productivity and sustainability really easily
Speaker 2: as well.
Speaker 1: Because it's probably not replacing actually being on the land,
Speaker 1: walking around taking a look at the conditions yourself.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, And i'd say, you know, great farmers are
Speaker 2: on the farm more with Halter, right, So they are
Speaker 2: when they're coaching their their farm, their farm managers or
Speaker 2: farm workers, they are instead of having to rush to
Speaker 2: do everything, and it's all very much like do this,
Speaker 2: then do that, then do that. You can actually step
Speaker 2: back and I think you can actually take back control
Speaker 2: of farming as well. So the love and life they're
Speaker 2: getting back on farm, we've heard from a number of
Speaker 2: farmers that it's brought that kind of joy back back
Speaker 2: to farming for them. Another thing that I'd say we've
Speaker 2: seen here in farming in New Zealand in general is
Speaker 2: a shift of young people away from farming as a
Speaker 2: career because it is it's tough hours, right, it's early starts.
Speaker 2: It's hard work, and I think this is really we're
Speaker 2: seeing much more and more younger people come into this.
Speaker 2: We hear a lot of stories about, you know, leaving
Speaker 2: a farm and wanting to work on other whole to farms,
Speaker 2: you know, So it's kind of it's a retention tool
Speaker 2: in the industry as well. And that's all because, as
Speaker 2: I say, it takes those jobs that aren't value adding
Speaker 2: jobs away and it replaces it with a great toolkit
Speaker 2: that brings you closer to the land and closer to
Speaker 2: your animals.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about that example you gave before about the
Speaker 1: young woman talking to a dad. I imagine that for
Speaker 1: a lot of farmers, that's great to hear. A lot
Speaker 1: of them are probably watching their kids saying I'm not
Speaker 1: interested remotely in taking on millions tens of millions of
Speaker 1: dollars worth of debt to try and run this place.
Speaker 1: And I don't know, maybe I'm just not that familiar
Speaker 1: with all of the stuff that you're doing on farm.
Speaker 1: So the app is a way to what try and
Speaker 1: give them another doorway into that spot on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think that's look I'm I reckon, I'm
Speaker 2: the luckiest person at Halter. I'm on the road at
Speaker 2: least every second week right now, every week with our
Speaker 2: teams on farm and just listening to our farmers and
Speaker 2: their stories. And you know, for some it's like what
Speaker 2: brought them into Halter. For some, it's what keeps them
Speaker 2: at Halter. For others, it's you know, potential new business
Speaker 2: to say what Halter could mean for them. And I
Speaker 2: do think that that succession piece is a big one
Speaker 2: for a lot of farmers, you know, in terms of
Speaker 2: bringing that next generation on, giving them the tools and
Speaker 2: the excitement about what it looks like. For some, it's
Speaker 2: you know, extending farming. I was with a lovely couple
Speaker 2: down in the Bay of Plenty recently who were in
Speaker 2: their sixties, and they were like, we love farming, but
Speaker 2: we know that, you know, like when I've got to
Speaker 2: I've got to get up on a step ladder to
Speaker 2: do my like the reproduction side of business, and I
Speaker 2: don't like doing it at this age, and so like
Speaker 2: this will keep us in farming for another five years.
Speaker 2: And I just, you know, it's pretty special being able
Speaker 2: to get out and hear those stories for an industry
Speaker 2: that's so important as a key where you're to New
Speaker 2: Zealand pretty special to kind of hear how alter can
Speaker 2: kind of make that improvement from people's life.
Speaker 1: What sort of penetration have you got then into New
Speaker 1: Zealand obviously it's the main market, it's the home market.
Speaker 1: Where are you at?
Speaker 2: Look, what I'd say is we're just getting started in
Speaker 2: certain in certain communities, in certain kind of places, we've
Speaker 2: got you know, one in every three farms, for example.
Speaker 2: In others it's a lot earlier, a lot earlier stage,
Speaker 2: and we're really seeing it. It is that kind of
Speaker 2: community growth almost is what we're seeing. So farmers trust
Speaker 2: and believe in other farmers, and so what you start
Speaker 2: to see is, you know, you get a few hold
Speaker 2: of farms, then the next or ahbor kind of comes over,
Speaker 2: has a bit of a look and sees what the
Speaker 2: store warriors and gets a bit excited, and then you
Speaker 2: kind of get that farm and then that farm, and
Speaker 2: so there's this big almost network effect there of farms
Speaker 2: seeing the products, seeing the impact, seeing you know, the
Speaker 2: mum and dad on the netball courts on the Saturday,
Speaker 2: whereas previously you'd only ever have one parent and now
Speaker 2: they can both get off farm or going to Fiji
Speaker 2: for a week for their first holiday and years because
Speaker 2: they can still monitor, so they've still got that trust.
Speaker 2: But then you know their farm manager can kind of
Speaker 2: or farm workers can do the work, and that's our
Speaker 2: biggest thing. So what we'd see is in areas where
Speaker 2: we've got that minimum penetration where we start to see that,
Speaker 2: that's where you really get that network effect and get
Speaker 2: that really rapid growth that we've been seeing.
Speaker 1: Would you expect to see the same sort of thing
Speaker 1: in the US, though much bigger market, very very different situation,
Speaker 1: different farming systems, different culture. How is it going to
Speaker 1: go there? It's going really well so far.
Speaker 2: At the heart of it, it's a universal truth. I
Speaker 2: think that farmers and ranches over there, we use the
Speaker 2: term ranchers farmers are a very different thing over there.
Speaker 2: Farmers and ranches care for their land, care for their
Speaker 2: animals as a starting point, and so at the heart
Speaker 2: we still see that. I have been in many conversations
Speaker 2: with US ranches on the ground over there and they
Speaker 2: actually go very similarly to a New Zealand farmer just
Speaker 2: from a few years ago. So the kind of the
Speaker 2: understanding of the product is still in its infancy it's
Speaker 2: not like here where we're at field days a few
Speaker 2: weeks ago. Every farmer that came into the tent knew
Speaker 2: what halter was, knew a little bit about it, knew
Speaker 2: what kind of value it could provide. We're not at
Speaker 2: that stage yet in the US. There's still that educational piece,
Speaker 2: educational phase to it. The other thing about the US
Speaker 2: which I found interesting is we're pretty much selling to
Speaker 2: beef farms only. Something like ninety five percent of US
Speaker 2: dairy is not pasture based. So we're a pasture based company.
Speaker 2: We help cows on grass. Ninety five percent of cows
Speaker 2: in the dairy industry in the USA are not on grass.
Speaker 2: They're in barns or feed lots, and so that's not
Speaker 2: really our target market over there. It's really those those
Speaker 2: classical cows on the range. That's who we're dealing with,
Speaker 2: that kind of the cattle side of things. There so
Speaker 2: a few differences there, but on the whole we're actually
Speaker 2: seeing that you know, a conversation in the US is
Speaker 2: not so dissimilar to a conversation in New Zealand.
Speaker 1: But there'd be a lot of feed lot feeding out
Speaker 1: for those beef cattle as well, right so I wonder,
Speaker 1: I mean, how big is the market there, given that
Speaker 1: pasture doesn't have the same kind of role in the US,
Speaker 1: how big is that total addressable market.
Speaker 2: It's a big one, so i'd say for the US
Speaker 2: it's kind of that one and a half two billion
Speaker 2: dollars of total addressable market, so maybe one and a
Speaker 2: half double New Zealand. That's why we are at a
Speaker 2: very privileged good position here in New Zealand with our
Speaker 2: brilliant pasture based farmers and you know on the dairy
Speaker 2: side and the beef side of things that you know,
Speaker 2: we are a startup that was able to build our
Speaker 2: product in a really really big, advanced market. Like i'd say,
Speaker 2: New Zealand farmers are the best farmers in the world
Speaker 2: in many respects and when it comes to pasture based farming,
Speaker 2: and it's a really really big market. So we were
Speaker 2: lucky we could grow here, we could test our product
Speaker 2: here and it's not puny or irrelevant compared to the
Speaker 2: rest of the world. So New Zealand core market. But yeah,
Speaker 2: US beef it is big. What I would say is, yes,
Speaker 2: there can be some like feedlock finishing. I'm getting really
Speaker 2: into the farming minutia, so bear with me. You can
Speaker 2: get some feedlot finishing, so a cow might live, you know,
Speaker 2: ninety five percent of their life on grass and then
Speaker 2: finish at a feed lot. But we're still working with
Speaker 2: it during that majority of life, you know, out on
Speaker 2: the ranges, out on the prairies, really extensive beef farms.
Speaker 2: That's really the core of what we're doing over there
Speaker 2: in the US.
Speaker 1: Does the technology perform the same on the ground there
Speaker 1: that it would here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's the same collar, so we use the same
Speaker 2: collar on a cow, regardless of it's New Zealand, Australia,
Speaker 2: the US beef tear. It's all the same. So at
Speaker 2: the heart of it, the hardware is the same, software
Speaker 2: largely the same. You know, they use different language for
Speaker 2: certain things farmers, ranches, paddocks, pastures, all of those things.
Speaker 2: So there's a few little tweaks there, but for the
Speaker 2: most part, it's all the exact same piece. I'd say
Speaker 2: the big difference is there, like us on a ranch
Speaker 2: in Wyoming recently, which was one hundred thousand hectares. Now,
Speaker 2: you know, a typical dairy farm in the Wykado is
Speaker 2: maybe a hundred hectares, so you know, a thousandfold difference
Speaker 2: in size, but on the whole, the product's still doing
Speaker 2: the same thing. We're still supporting pasture based animals. You
Speaker 2: might go at a slightly different manner, but at the
Speaker 2: heart it's quite nice that it's all that same piece.
Speaker 1: There are other countries in the world where pasture is
Speaker 1: a big deal, like Ireland is one example, big dairy industry,
Speaker 1: very similar to New Zealand. Where's that on the list?
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh, there are some fantastic other markets that I
Speaker 2: think we'll get to one day. I know it's a
Speaker 2: bit of a cheesy answer, but you know there's a
Speaker 2: lot of cows in New Zealand, Australia, in the US,
Speaker 2: and so that's very much our priority right now is
Speaker 2: is is doing a really really good job in those
Speaker 2: three markets, and then yes, other markets will come, but yeah,
Speaker 2: we've we've we've still got a lot of a long
Speaker 2: way to go in those three markets to make it
Speaker 2: really good for our for our farmers and for our customers.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm just trying to understand a little bit
Speaker 1: as well, like most people, what it means as a
Speaker 1: company that's a startup to reach a point where you
Speaker 1: can say you're you're worth a billion dollars. That's kind
Speaker 1: of a big moment for a startup. Right Unicorn status,
Speaker 1: I think is what we call it. Yeah, how do
Speaker 1: you put some confidence around that number?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say there's there's probably the The internal
Speaker 2: answer is that for us, it's it's a it's an
Speaker 2: exciting thing. I think it's validation for the team and
Speaker 2: for the farmers that believed in us and those things.
Speaker 2: It's just a point in the journey, right, Like, we
Speaker 2: are so excited about what we're building here. The feedback
Speaker 2: we get from farmers like you know you we're you
Speaker 2: know the warehouse that I'm looking at right now, Like
Speaker 2: it's we're building something really special. That's what drives us.
Speaker 2: This is as I said, it's it's exciting, it's cool.
Speaker 2: It's validation for some folks, but really it's just a
Speaker 2: milestone and our journey and we can't wait to keep
Speaker 2: building really cool stuff. And that's that's i'd say the
Speaker 2: priority of everybody you chat to here at Alter as well.
Speaker 1: I guess the question there was around, so you've got
Speaker 1: a company here which you're telling people is worth a
Speaker 1: billion dollars. Who's saying that what confidence are they expressing
Speaker 1: in that number.
Speaker 2: At the heart of it, the investment or the number
Speaker 2: that we're talking about here does come from from our investors.
Speaker 2: The company that's leading the Series D for US as
Speaker 2: a company called bond So US VC company. They spun
Speaker 2: out of Kline Perkins so one of the biggest about
Speaker 2: ten years ago, and have invested in some of the
Speaker 2: biggest startup scale ups tech companies of the past ten.
Speaker 1: Years, name checking like you know Airbnb, can the couple
Speaker 1: of other ones I can probably think about if I
Speaker 1: checked the notes.
Speaker 2: Yes, spot on so the Yeah, they've been there, done
Speaker 2: that with some pretty special tech companies. That's one of
Speaker 2: the things that US drew them to us was their
Speaker 2: pretty special history in terms of execution and growth of
Speaker 2: those companies. But I think the flip of that is
Speaker 2: when they look at us, you know, our factor is
Speaker 2: our revenue and our revenue growth. That's a big, big
Speaker 2: way to kind of build that valuation the you know,
Speaker 2: our impact in the US market and how we've managed
Speaker 2: to grow that quickly and sustainably over there. But I
Speaker 2: think the other piece that really hit home for them
Speaker 2: and they presented this back to us, was was the
Speaker 2: impact that we do have on farmers and ranches as well.
Speaker 2: I think they talked to over twenty farmers and ranches
Speaker 2: across New Zealand, Australia in the US as part of
Speaker 2: their due diligence in US and to understand us. The
Speaker 2: feedback was the way that you know, farmers would only
Speaker 2: farm with Halter or could only farm with Halter, who
Speaker 2: stay in farming too because of Halter. They passed on
Speaker 2: a story about a farmer here in New Zealand that
Speaker 2: have had that had had Halter for five weeks and
Speaker 2: they were saying that he just can't imagine farming without Halter.
Speaker 2: And I think it's those pieces that really hit home
Speaker 2: to them how important this product could be globally. And
Speaker 2: so you put all those together and that's how we
Speaker 2: kind of that's how they get to that valuation.
Speaker 1: I guess we are seeing. I mean, you know, farming
Speaker 1: has already always been about adopting technology and moving things forward.
Speaker 1: You know, Cheersys in particular, I think has got a
Speaker 1: relationship running with Fonterra. It enables a lot of people
Speaker 1: that have shareholding there to manage that effectively. You've introduced
Speaker 1: some things as well, specifically for Fonterra farmers to try
Speaker 1: and make things work. What's going on there a.
Speaker 2: Few pieces here. One we are using Halter on a
Speaker 2: few Fonterra farms, so that's going live kind of as
Speaker 2: we speak right now, and that's because I think Fonterra
Speaker 2: see the benefit in this, but they also want to
Speaker 2: be able to talk to their farmers about it as well.
Speaker 2: And we've also been we've integrated all Fonterra milk production
Speaker 2: into the Holter app as well, So if you know,
Speaker 2: you can look at your app, you can see, ah,
Speaker 2: during this period of time, our cows were grazing a
Speaker 2: little bit more or grazing and ruminating a little bit more,
Speaker 2: and that's had a real impact for us in terms
Speaker 2: of our milk production. So it starts to tie a
Speaker 2: few of those pieces together so that you can actually
Speaker 2: see both the work that you do as a farmer
Speaker 2: how that then impacts milk production, which then obvious see
Speaker 2: how that impacts your revenue as well. So it's a
Speaker 2: great window into that. So again you can kind of
Speaker 2: upskill as a farmer. You can get fairly real time
Speaker 2: input into all of this, and you can tie the
Speaker 2: actions and the activities that you're doing with what it
Speaker 2: means for you from a bottom line perspective.
Speaker 1: You talked about how I mean launching here in New
Speaker 1: Zealand was really really important obviously for this because it's
Speaker 1: so well aligned with dairy and so on. I mean,
Speaker 1: is there something particular about this part of the world
Speaker 1: Here in Australia. I read that we get a much
Speaker 1: greater kind of uptake in terms of startups from every
Speaker 1: dollar of venture capital money that's put in there compared
Speaker 1: to places like the US. Any ideas about why that
Speaker 1: might be.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, it's I think there is an element of
Speaker 2: good old Kiui ingenuity. I've got a theory as well
Speaker 2: that you know, we are kind of squirreled away at
Speaker 2: the bottom of the world here. You know, it's four
Speaker 2: hours to get anywhere. It's longer to get even you know,
Speaker 2: further than a Australia and so that there is that
Speaker 2: kind of you know, innovation or desire for growth down here.
Speaker 2: I think there's a pretty cool ecosystem, you know, Like
Speaker 2: I for example, I was at ven for vin for
Speaker 2: a few years and then we got acquired for about
Speaker 2: half a billion Kiwi and you know, you can see
Speaker 2: some vin people in the in the market, like you know,
Speaker 2: helping in some of these companies. Now you've seen the
Speaker 2: same for Trade me and zero and these other kind
Speaker 2: of these exciting pieces, so we're starting to see that grow.
Speaker 2: I also think that, you know, there's a there's a
Speaker 2: good seed investment kind of community here as well, so
Speaker 2: helps get those startups up and running and and and
Speaker 2: kind of creating value in things as well. So you know,
Speaker 2: I think, yeah, I think New Zealand's a pretty special
Speaker 2: place in terms of a lot of those things. Going
Speaker 2: a bit off topic, I do think we should be
Speaker 2: doing more in that agri tech space. You know that
Speaker 2: New Zealand is brilliant at agriculture, is brilliant at tech.
Speaker 2: There are some really cool ag tech startups here in
Speaker 2: New Zealand. But I'd love to see even more as well,
Speaker 2: because I think we are uniquely placed here to be
Speaker 2: building and driving some special stuff in that in that
Speaker 2: ag tech space.
Speaker 1: While you've been telling me that, I checked my notes,
Speaker 1: one point two two unicorns. For every billion of VC
Speaker 1: cash invested in Australia, one point in New Zealand and
Speaker 1: in the US, it's about two thirds of a unicorn
Speaker 1: per billion. So I guess what I'm saying. It sounds
Speaker 1: like we're batting above the averages here.
Speaker 2: Oh cool, I hadn't heard that before. That's exciting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, does that? I mean? Is that just because people
Speaker 1: tend to stay in the network and keep investing, because obviously,
Speaker 1: this is the kind of capital we're talking about is
Speaker 1: not immediately available to retail investors at the moment. It's
Speaker 1: not something that anyone can just leap on an app
Speaker 1: and take a punt on. Can you see that changing?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I think over time. I think that would be
Speaker 2: really great to see. I think that there is that.
Speaker 2: I like how you put it, that kind of re
Speaker 2: investment here. You know, like one of our early investors
Speaker 2: and a real mentor to Craig was Sir Peter Beck
Speaker 2: for example. You know, he built something special, he reinvested it.
Speaker 2: In terms of that, I'd say another one is, you
Speaker 2: know Sam more than from trade Me built something special
Speaker 2: there exited and he was a really key part of
Speaker 2: my vend story. You know, he was one of the
Speaker 2: main investors. He was one of the most vocal folks
Speaker 2: on the board. And so I think there is like
Speaker 2: that's one of the most special elements. But yeah, I
Speaker 2: think I think in terms of retail investors, the more
Speaker 2: that folks are seeing or having access to startup scale ups,
Speaker 2: I think it's an exciting piece. And especially when you
Speaker 2: think about it from a Cheersay's perspective and an investment perspective,
Speaker 2: like having a pretty broad portfolio is good. So getting
Speaker 2: more and more stuff in that early stage is also
Speaker 2: I think a win for folks.
Speaker 1: I guess there's a lot of risk attached to investments
Speaker 1: like that, so absolutely why they sit in the sort
Speaker 1: of the wholesale side of things where effectively completely different
Speaker 1: system set up to to to identify those investments. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so we're too from here, What's what's what's what's the
Speaker 1: next step?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Look, as I said earlier, like I think it's
Speaker 2: it's it's about growing and building. We've got a really exciting,
Speaker 2: cool product and something I'm very proud of, and I
Speaker 2: think the team here is proud of and our farmers
Speaker 2: are proud of, and so I'm I'm just excited to
Speaker 2: get it, you know, on as many farms as possible
Speaker 2: and as many farmers using it and helping us grow
Speaker 2: and improve it going forward as well. So that's Uh,
Speaker 2: that's that's the plan is where it's still it's still early.
Speaker 2: There's there's a long way to go, and so we've
Speaker 2: just got to keep being focused, keep doing bloody good
Speaker 2: stuff every day. And yeah, pretty pretty pumped at what
Speaker 2: it can mean for us.
Speaker 1: It sounds like you're telling me it's a little too
Speaker 1: soon to talk about things like an IPO, whether the
Speaker 1: companies headed to the NASDAK headed off suore to try
Speaker 1: and raise its capital from the public ultimately, or what
Speaker 1: sort of shape Holter winds up in.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So, look, we're very much a KEYWI company and
Speaker 2: our headquarters here, all of our engineers are here, and
Speaker 2: that's gonna that that's going to be our focus for
Speaker 2: the next wee. While down the road, who knows, absolutely,
Speaker 2: you know, could consider that that Nasdaq or IPO path
Speaker 2: could also go more the Stripe SpaceX route of staying
Speaker 2: private and profitable. But right now the focus is really
Speaker 2: on that kind of that building, continuing to make Halters
Speaker 2: as amazing as possible for our farmers and ranches. And
Speaker 2: I think that's what it excites everyone here on a
Speaker 2: day to day basis.
Speaker 1: Andrew Fraser Halter President, Gosh, that's I'm getting used to
Speaker 1: that title, so thank you for your time.
Speaker 2: Really appreciate it. Mate, Thank you so much.
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