Halter, the New Zealand startup that makes AI collars for cows, has reportedly raised $220 million at a valuation of $2 billion, led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund.
At the center of the agritech startup is 31-year-old Craig Piggott, who grew up on a dairy farm in Waikato before spending the past decade building Halter around the idea that farmers can now move and manage herds with less time and fewer hands thanks to technology.
After school, Piggott went on to study mechanical engineering at the University of Auckland, where he graduated with first-class honors. He began his early career at Rocket Lab, gaining exposure to high-performance engineering environments.
It wasn’t long, however, before he felt pulled back toward the work he understood most.
The AI cow collar startup now valued at $2 billion
Piggott founded Halter in 2016 when he was just 21 years old, with a farmer’s sense of where time goes. On a dairy farm, grazing plans change, herds move, boundaries get adjusted, and those decisions turn into hours of setup and supervision.
For him, experiencing those friction-heavy operations throughout his childhood helped him develop an early interest in automation.
The idea itself was simple enough to explain, yet far more complex to execute. His plan, from the start, was to replace some of the most time-consuming parts of herd management with a system that could be run from a phone.
Halter’s product is a full setup rather than a single device. Reports have described Halter’s system as a mix of AI-powered collars, connectivity towers, and a mobile app that allow ranchers to virtually fence, move, and monitor cattle, using cues such as sound and vibration.
In practice, that means Piggot had to build for unpredictable conditions, such as weather, distance, patchy coverage, and animals that need consistent training. As a result, Halter’s progress has come through deployment.
Years have been spent getting the system onto properties, making it reliable, and supporting ranch teams that want problems solved quickly.
Building for the real world
The startup’s growth has largely been tied to the United States, where ranch sizes make labor and logistics expensive. In June 2025, Halter raised $100 million in a Series D funding round that valued the company at $1 billion.
The round was led by BOND, with participation from NewView and existing investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, DCVC, Blackbird, Icehouse Ventures, and Promus Ventures, according to reports. Halter said at the time it was already working with about 150 ranchers across 18 states.
Now, those numbers attached to Halter have escalated quickly. The company has just confirmed it has raised $220 million at a valuation of more than $2 billion, led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund.
For Piggott, the next stage is about extending the concept he’s already spent a decade proving, as the thesis he started from a small dairy farm in Waikato seems to be the same one he is now selling to global investors.
