Corral raises $1.38M to expand virtual fence solution’s US hoofprint; M25, Grit Road beef up deal
January 24, 2024 | Startland News Staff
Startland News’ Startup Road Trip series explores innovative and uncommon ideas finding success in rural America and Midwestern startup hubs outside the Kansas City metro.
LINCOLN, Nebraska — Agtech pioneered by a third-generation rancher-turned-startup founder has corralled an oversubscribed $1.38 million funding round with backing from a healthy herd of regional investors.
Corral Technologies, a Nebraska-fed company that provides best-in-class virtual fencing solutions, on Wednesday announced the round led by Chicago-based M25 with participation from Grit Road Partners and Invest Nebraska.
Jack Keating, Corral Technologies
Jack Keating, a ranch hand for 15 years on his family’s cow-calf operations ranch in Nebraska, launched Corral in 2019. He imagined a better way to herd cattle using technology and started experimenting with modified dog collars — combining his deep industry knowledge with tinkering and experimentation.
“Corral is set to achieve significant milestones in 2024,” Keating said. “We will be deploying our commercial collars to producers across approximately 25 states. We are expanding our team and adding to our sales, customer success, and engineering departments. It will be the first year when Corral is projected to pass $1 million in sales.”
Additionally, a new collar design set for release in 2025 promises enhanced durability and reliability for Corral’s devices and the company is continuing to roll out new analytics and features on the software front geared toward elevating producer profitability, Keating added.
The backbone of this industry — the ranchers leading cow-calf operations — have been underserved in terms of technology solutions that will save them time, hard work and improve the quality of their land and cattle, he continued. One of the biggest pain points has been effectively rotational grazing their cow-calf pairs, especially when it comes to setting up and maintaining cross fences, corralling their cattle and trying to improve their utilization rates per acre yield.
Victor Gutwein, M25
“Typically we steer clear of agtech as ranchers generally avoid adopting new technology, but the interest in Corral has created a virtual stampede of demand,” said Victor Gutwein, managing partner at M25. “Whether it be enabling fewer ranch hands to work a broader area, increasing herd size while more sustainably grazing existing land or just more effective herd management, Jack and the Corral team have bucked the trend and already have sales across all the major beef producing states.”
The company will use the funds to fulfill production, expand the team and continue to refine the product’s hardware and software. Corral plans to launch a rancher-dealer network which currently consists of 15 ranchers across 10 states.
“The virtual fencing space is one we’ve been monitoring for a few years now and we’re excited to say we believe the industry is finally ready to adopt this technology,” said Ben Williamson, managing director at Grit Road Partners and Corral board member. “It’s clear to us that there’s no one better to understand the customer and capture this opportunity than Jack and the team he’s built.”
RELATED: Grit Road plants $11M venture fund to cultivate homegrown ag tech solutions across Midwest
Featured Business
2024 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Dolphin Tank makes a splash with women in tech: Meet the next three founders pitching
The Dolphin Tank pitch showcase returns to Kansas City this month with a trio of women-led tech startups riding a wave of heightened exposure for their ventures. Now in its second year in Kansas City, Springboard Enterprises’ Dolphin Tank is set for 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 28, at Polsinelli, 900 W. 48th…
Chiefs celebration turned much of downtown KC into a parking lot; Startups along the parade route got to work, joined the party
Prime locations along the Chiefs championship parade gave several local startups an opportunity to celebrate with their team members and families Wednesday as traffic and business largely came to a halt across midtown and downtown Kansas City. “It’s not every day Chiefs players are walking the streets out front and waving at our team in…
Help from above: Why protecting satellites from cyber attacks could hold key to adapting to climate change
Humans must responsibly rise to the occasion as Earth’s climate changes, Charles Beames said, detailing the role well-protected satellites and space systems can play in putting life-preserving solutions into orbit. “Space systems are one of the keys to the future, our future, of dealing with the changing climate and our adaptation,” said Beames, aerospace expert and…
In the field: Industry-specific, hands-free voice tech helps ‘hero up’ data collecting workers
After years of research, Bruce Rasa and his team identified a consistent pain point for field workers: capturing data on-the-go and looping it back to their headquarters. They need a co-pilot, he said, noting the role played by KC-based Dexer (formerly AgVoice), agriculture’s first handsfree data capture service to help cross-industry specialists create records —…