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
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