Founders Fund, the venture firm co-founded by Peter Thiel, has led a $220 million Series E funding round for Halter, a New Zealand-based startup specializing in solar-powered smart collars for cattle. The deal values the company at $2 billion.
Halter’s technology replaces traditional physical fencing with a digital system. The setup includes a solar-powered collar, low-frequency towers, and a smartphone app that allows farmers to monitor and guide livestock remotely.
CEO Craig Piggott, who founded the company nine years ago, says the system addresses the logistical challenges of managing cattle across rugged, remote terrain. "If you manage a pasture-based farm, whether it’s dairy or beef, the most important variable is how you manage the productivity of your land," Piggott told TechCrunch. "Fences are the lever — they control where animals graze and how you rest the land. Being able to do that virtually just made a lot of sense."
Data-driven livestock management
The collars utilize audio and vibration cues to manage herd movement, a process Piggott compares to parking sensors on a vehicle. According to the company, most cattle learn to respond to these signals within three interactions with a virtual fence.
Beyond herding, the collars function as continuous monitoring devices. They collect behavioral data to track animal health, monitor fertility cycles, and flag potential illnesses. Piggott claims that the company’s ability to provide these insights has grown alongside its expanding dataset of cattle behavior.
"The product that ranchers use today is radically different to what they bought a year ago," Piggott said. "Every week, we’re releasing new things to our customers."
Currently, Halter is on its fifth generation of hardware. The company is actively testing a reproduction-tracking product with customers in the United States.
