Editor’s note: Made in Tarrant is an occasional Q&A series on small businesses started in Tarrant County. Submit your business here.
Growing up in the wide open — and often arid — spaces of western Australia, Andrew Coppin saw firsthand how much time it took farmers and ranchers to check on their critical water supplies. His father had farming and ranching operations and he spent a lot of time there.
Despite a quarter century career in finance that took him to far corners of the globe, those ranches were never far from his mind.
“I’d spent a lot of time driving around checking water that 95% of the time didn’t need checking,” he said. “As life’s journey goes, I didn’t know that 25 years later, I’d be running a technology company that was solving that problem.”
Working with co-founder and software developer Craig Hendricks, they began tinkering on an idea for remote water and infrastructure monitoring. They built a number of prototypes that they tested in real-world conditions before finally launching a remote water sensor to monitor water about 10 years ago.
Ranchbot uses its sensors to create a monitoring network designed for the harshest environments. By placing sensors in tanks, pipes, wells, pumps and reservoirs, farmers and ranchers can continuously monitor water levels, flow rates and pump performance every minute of every day via their phone app. The system sends real-time alerts via satellite or cellular networks.
After finding success with the product in his native Australia, Coppin relocated corporate offices in Fort Worth, looking to expand in Texas and across the U.S.
“Establishing our head office in Fort Worth has been an excellent decision as we are in the heartland of beef cattle, ranch education and wildlife management,” said Coppin. “We have experienced triple digit growth in our core metrics as our customers realize, they have to find better ways to be more efficient, conserve water and be proactive in looking after livestock, especially now with beef cattle prices at all-time highs.“
The company recently added James Clement to its board. Clement’s family has long ties to the legendary King Ranch and Beggs Cattle Co.
The company is now engaging with ranch owners, private investment funds and strategic corporate investors to raise up to $20 million to fund their growth across the U.S. to replicate the success in Australia.
The firm plans to expand its production, support and sales team in Texas and grow its sales team across the country.
Ranchbot
Contact information:
1701 River Run
Suite 1109
Fort Worth 76107
512-706-9084
Website: ranch-bot.com
Instagram: instagram.com/ranchbot
YouTube: youtube.com/@ranchbot
Email: sales@ranch-bot.com
Business editor Bob Francis spoke with Coppin as he prepared for the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo where the company will be demonstrating its products. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Francis: Tell me about the history of the company.
Coppiin: I grew up ranching in Australia and spent a lot of time driving around checking water that — 95% of the time — didn’t need checking. But it’s a job that has to be done. But that annoyed me enough that it stuck with me and I tried to solve the problem. As they say, be careful what you wish for. Now, about 10 years later, we look after about 10,000 ranches, and we monitor the water for millions of beef cattle and millions of sheep all around Australia and now all around America.
Francis: What appealed to you about Fort Worth?
Coppin: Cowtown sounded like the best place to be. Also, there’s plenty of smart young people at TCU and Texas Tech and Texas A&M. (Ranchbot is also collaborating with the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service to promote and develop satellite-connected agricultural monitoring systems). I came here because this is where all the smart young ranchers, kids and ranch managers and animal health people are. We now have 26 people on the ground here in the U.S. and we’re looking after ranches from here to California.
Francis: What’s the appeal of the product?
Coppin: We let ranches know what’s happening with their water in real time. Basically, we put our sensors on their water tanks or their troughs or their wells, and they communicate directly with satellites, and then send their messages back to the app on the rancher’s phone to tell them if the water’s high, if the water’s low, if the water’s falling too fast, if the pump’s on, if the pump’s off, if it’s raining, if there’s water flow. They can do all sorts of things. It’s all about managing water infrastructure, which is absolutely critical in agriculture.
The product is appealing because ranching is the least digitized sector on the planet. Yet, the demands on ranchers to grow more with less in increasingly volatile weather environments. That means you have to use data and have better data. I’ve never met a rancher that doesn’t complain about having no time. I’ve never met one with a bottom on the to-do list. I’ve never met one that can find an abundance of good people. So this technology alleviates that and gives them back time and gives them peace of mind to know there is water in the back pasture, because the back pasture might be 150 miles from wherever they are.
Francis: Texas is growing fast, so there are a lot of demands on water.
Coppin: Yep, it’s a big country, and water is a premium. Everyone is competing for water, from data centers to property developers, they need more water.
But last time I checked, people in Texas are pretty partial to having the odd steak as well. If we don’t give water to our ranchers and help them manage and control water, then you know, it’s going to be a problem in years to come.
Francis: What is the cost of the product?
Coppin: Our entry level products start about $600 and our top of the range products are about $1,600. Then there are the communication costs, which are about $1 per day.
Francis: What improvements have you made to the products?
Coppin: For the last three years, we’ve asked our customers to rank the top 10 things they’re looking for. Then we try to deliver the top three highest ranked things.
Last year, there was a big push to be able to turn their pumps on or off remotely. So we did that. Now I can sit here in Fort Worth and turn a pump on or off everywhere from Kingsville to Amarillo without having to go anywhere.
Recently, we announced two new technologies that we’ve merged with. One is Davis Weather Stations. Now you can get a Davis Weather Station, put it in the middle of West Texas where there’s no cellular coverage at all, and plug it into your Ranchbot, and you will have full-blown weather, wind, temperature, rainfall, everything.
Francis: Where is the product manufactured?
Coppin: They are made in Richardson and are certified Go Texan products.
We did another collaboration with another Texas company called CattleMax, which is a grazing app based out of College Station. We now send data about rainfall and water levels onto their app.
Francis: And you’ll be exhibiting at the Fort Worth Stock Show?
Coppin: Yep. That’s why we’re here.
Bob Francis is business editor for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at bob.francis@fortworthreport.org. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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