Early Stage Companies: Halter

What have been the key highlights for Halter over the past year?

It’s been an exciting past year for the team with a few key highlights springing to mind. Deploying Halter technology on our pilot farm and getting it operational was certainly a highlight, along with working through production in Shenzhen and the countless insightful conversations we’ve had with NZ farmers over the last year or so. Our biggest highlight to date however would have to be growing the Halter team to sit at now 38 talented people and seeing everyone work together so incredibly.

How many funding rounds have you had in that time, and where has the funding come from?

We’ve raised several rounds of capital, the first round was from NZ investors including The Icehouse’s Tuhua Ventures and Peter Beck. All subsequent rounds have been led by US investors including DCVC, Promus Ventures and Founders Fund, with our NZ investors continuing to support us.

Have staff numbers increased over the past year? In what ways has this impacted on how the team operates?

Staff numbers have more than tripled over the past 12 months. As the headcount has grown and more teams have been added we have had to alter the way communication flows through the company and start to bring in more structure and process. Further, we have done a great deal of work on our company culture and it is now very much ingrained into the way we operate as a company and a team.

Have you increased your number of offices over the past year? Where are your new offices?

We have not increased our number of offices however we have certainly upsized, moving into a much larger office to accommodate our growing team. We currently have an office in Central Auckland for engineering and operations as well as a facility in the Waikato for all testing.

What is Halter's focus for the next 12 months?

To date, we have been focused on our technology and ensuring its reliability on our test farm. The next 12 months will see us focus more on commercialization and deploying onto our first set of farms.

What has been the biggest challenge you've faced over the past year and how did you overcome it?

The biggest challenge we have faced has been finding great people to add to the team – we have a number of roles that have taken longer to fill and some we are still looking for. Finding the combination of skillset, experience and domain expertise has proven to be challenging.