Halter is now incorporated in California (home of its largest investors over its last two rounds) but its management and R&D \u2013 and most of its 350 staff \u2013 remain in Auckland.<\/p>\n
Piggott says staff numbers have been doubling each year. He expects that trend to continue with the latest injection of capital.<\/p>\n
The \u201cSeries E\u201d round is Halter\u2019s fifth raise. That\u2019s where the venture capital alphabet typically stops.<\/p>\n
Is Halter starting to think about a public listing?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have one eye on what an IPO could look like in the future. We don\u2019t have any timeframes,\u201d Piggott said. <\/p>\n
Founders Fund principal Peter Thiel. The billionaire and New Zealand citizen is best known for his early backing of Facebook, PayPal and Palantir, but has also invested in Kiwi companies including Xero and Vend during their formative years. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
The Halter founder says he talked directly with Founders Fund principal (and on-again-off-again Trump supporter) Peter Thiel directly over the Series E raise.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was amazing how quickly he understood the product and the industry. He\u2019s clearly a very smart human,\u201d Piggott said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Founders Fund is one of the best VCs in the world. They back generational companies, which we get excited about like SpaceX, Airbnb, Spotify, OpenAI and Facebook. And when they back these companies, they back them with a lot of conviction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked when Halter could hit profit, Piggott said, \u201cThe priority is growth and expansion.\u201d<\/p>\n
First, we\u2019ll take Morrinsville <\/p>\n
The Auckland-based maker of smart collars for cows \u2013 designed to support a \u201cvirtual fencing\u201d system and monitor the animals – was founded in 2016 by ex-Rocket Lab worker Craig Piggott after his boss Sir Peter Beck gave him his blessing and financial backing<\/a>. <\/p>\n Other early backers included Sir Stephen Tindall\u2019s K1W1 fund and Thiel\u2019s Founders Fund, which both put money into a $7m Series A round in 2018.<\/p>\n Beck also introduced Piggott to two of Rocket Lab\u2019s key Silicon Valley investors, Bessemer, DCVC and Promus, who all put money into Halter, too.<\/p>\n Piggott, the son of Waikato sharemilkers who often clocked 100-hour weeks, tested his first smart collar start-up on the small farm his parents later bought in Morrinsville.<\/p>\n Halter has recently expanded into the US, where huge Texas cattle ranches are among its targets, and into Australia, where now-updated animal welfare rules in some states have previously inhibited its progress. <\/p>\n While Halter\u2019s collars use electric pulses as one of their cues, Piggott says they deliver a tiny fraction of the charge of an electric fence. <\/p>\n Halter\u2019s product has been approved by the AgResearch Animal Ethics Committee, among other bodies.<\/p>\n Tracking to pass Fonterra within 3 years<\/p>\n Halter has not published global financials, and Piggott told Herald NOW Business that its NZ subsidiary financials, which showed the firm breaking even on a drop in revenue from $89m to $71m for the 2025 financial year \u201care really hard to unpick given intercompany transfers and whatnot, but obviously you don\u2019t do rounds like this withotu the business being in a really healthy spot.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAt the pace they\u2019re growing, it will take Halter 11 quarters to be worth more than Fonterra,\u201d Icehouse Ventures\u2019 Paul said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a great testament to the impact tech can have on New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n 4x return<\/p>\n Icehouse Ventures, one of Halter\u2019s earliest backers, has put progressively more money into the smart-cow firm over multiple rounds \u2013 from the $100,000 it chipped in to Halter\u2019s seed round to follow-ups of $500,000, $1m, $4m, $10m, $20m and larger investments.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve invested $105m to date,\u201d Paul told the Herald this morning.<\/p>\n His firm\u2019s stake in Halter currently has a holding value of $409m. <\/p>\n The huge gains have made Halter the fund\u2019s top-performing investment. That made it Icehouse\u2019s largest investment by a factor of three.<\/p>\n \u201cHalter is worth as much as our next 10 largest investments combined.\u201d <\/p>\n Icehouse\u2019s top 10 investments include its minority stakes in Crimson, Tracksuit, Dawn Aerospace, Partly, Hnry, Sharesies and OpenStar.<\/p>\n Paul wouldn\u2019t comment on the Bloomberg report or Halter\u2019s possible private equity valuation for its next raise. <\/p>\n Thiel, the first outside investor in Facebook and a co-founder of the hugely successful and controversial data-mining and \u201cspook\u201d software firm Palantir \u2013 shares in which have tripled in value over the past year as its market cap has hit US$360b \u2013 has been a New Zealand citizen since 2011.<\/p>\n Thiel has invested in multiple local start-ups and has bought land in Queenstown<\/a>. <\/p>\n The billionaire has rarely been sighted in New Zealand and has recently been winding down local investments<\/a>, but Founders Fund partner Scott Nolan has made annual visits to New Zealand and is well known in the local start-up and venture capital communities.<\/p>\n Innovator of the Year<\/p>\n Piggott was named<\/a> Innovator of the Year at the 2026 Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year awards on Thursday.<\/p>\nHalter founder Craig Piggott with the solar-powered Halter collar.<\/p>\n
Halter founder and chief executive Craig Piggott (left) with beef specialist Phathisa Khumalo in the R&D lab at Halter’s Auckland offices. Photo \/ Jason Oxenham<\/p>\n
Craig Piggott (right) with three of his key backers (from left): David Cowan, a partner at US venture capital firm and major Rocket Lab shareholder Bessemer, mentor and investor Sir Peter Beck (also Piggott’s boss during his stint at Rocket Lab) and Bessemer partner Tess Hatch.<\/p>\n