bing news | Unpacking Peter Thiel's big bet on solar-powered cow collars | TechCrunch Founders Fund, famous for backing “zero‑to‑one” companies such as Facebook, SpaceX and Palantir, has placed its latest bet on a New Zealand startup called Halter. Halter builds solar‑powered smart collars that let ranchers manage cattle spread across remote terrain without dogs, horses, motorbikes or helicopters. By creating virtual fences that can be set and moved from a smartphone app, the system promises a practical solution to a massive, unsolved problem in pasture‑based farming. The collars emit audio and vibration cues that cattle learn to obey, effectively “herding” them without physical barriers. Because the devices are always on, they continuously collect behavioral data, monitor health, track fertility cycles and flag illness, giving farmers unprecedented insight into each animal. Founder and CEO Craig Piggott, who grew up on a dairy farm in New Zealand and previously worked at Rocket Lab, has spent nine years refining the hardware—now on its fifth generation—and regularly pushes software updates to improve reliability and functionality. Today the collars are attached to more than a million cattle across 2,000 farms in New Zealand, Australia and the United States, boosting land productivity by up to 20 % and, in some cases, doubling outputs. Halter’s approach stands out in a sector where many ag‑tech startups struggle to gain traction, largely because it delivers a clear financial ROI and maintains “nine‑nines” reliability. With roughly $400 million raised, the company is expanding globally, eyeing the billion‑plus cattle that still lack virtual fencing, while competitors such as Merck’s Vence or drone‑based solutions remain peripheral to Halter’s core collar technology. Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/04/unpacking-peter-thiels-big-bet-on-solar-powered-cow-collars/ #peterthiel #foundersfund #newzealand #halter