Ubiquity Ventures, a new California-based early stage venture firm, debuted in January of this year with a $30 million fund.
After six years with Bessemer Venture Partners, Sunil Nagaraj stepped away and launched Ubiquity, a seed-stage investor in “software beyond the screen”, focusing on startups with smart hardware and machine intelligence applications.
“Nerdy and early is my mantra,” said Nagaraj, founder and managing partner of Ubiquity Ventures. “I aim to be the investor that is most like the founders I invest in.”
Whether in agriculture, mobility, or manufacturing, Ubiquity aims to find investment opportunities aligned with a specific theme of “software leaping off the screen and entering the real world.”
“By starting a tightly-focused firm, I can move at founder speed, giving high-potential teams early capital so they can get to market as fast as possible without jumping through hoops,” said Nagaraj.
Within months of launching, Ubiquity has announced its first six investments that meet its vision.
“I believe the companies in Ubiquity’s portfolio will be life-changing for many people,” said Nagaraj. “Some of these companies provide solutions to problems that we didn’t know could be solved…”
Included in the cohort is Halter, a New Zealand agtech startup developing a new technology with a tall mission: to reduce farmer’s work hours, enhance the well-being of cows and other livestock, protect the environment, and increase milk production.
The company’s artificial intelligence-powered “point and click” application, in combination with proprietary “Cowgorithm” and cow collars, allows farmers to manage livestock from anywhere in the world. The patented technology app allows farmers to set schedules to guide herds to the milk shed, receive alerts when cows are in distress or in poor health, and create virtual fences to corral the cows.
“Our patented cow control algorithm, known as CowgorithmTM, works seamlessly with our device, providing directional audio and vibrational cues to the cows to establish a virtual boundary around the animal, Craig Piggott, Halter CEO explained to GAI News in an interview. “The virtual boundary can subsequently be moved, which results in moving an individual cow, and ultimately the entire herd.”
Over the past two years the Halter team has spent thousands of hours working with farmers to understand their processes, challenges, and how Halter’s technology can enhance operations.
With backing from a list of Silicon Valley investors including Data Collective and Founders Fund, Halter has begun its commercialization phase, taking pre-orders from interested farmers, and planning a full commercial rollout for the beginning of this year.
“We are fortunate to have raised capital from an incredible group of investors including DCVC, Founders Fund, Ubiquity Ventures, Promus Ventures, and more,” Piggott told GAI News. “We are all aligned with our vision to reshape the farming sector and enable it to become more profitable and sustainable, and will require further capital to support our growth as we look to scale.”
Although the company began development with a focus on cows, Halter has plans in the pipeline to expand the application of its technology to include sheep, goats, and deer. Piggott explained the potential for growth that lies ahead, saying, “The scale of the market opportunity, coupled with our team and patented technology, has investors excited about our ability to transform the agriculture sector and create a large and enduring global company.”
-Lynda Kiernan