High-profile investor Michael Smurfit has ploughed nearly €1m into Moocall
The Dublin-based company has developed a sensor that predicts when a cow will give birth.
IRISH AGRI-TECH STARTUP Moocall has received a cash injection from high-profile investor Michael Smurfit, who has committed another €750,000 to the company.
The Dublin-based firm, which sells a device that alerts farmers when a cow is about to calve, recently received the funding from Isle of Man-based company Bacchantes Limited.
The Manx firm is an investment vehicle controlled by Michael Smurfit, the former chairman of Irish packaging giant Smurfit Kappa.
Smurfit’s firm previously put just under €190,000 into Moocall, which has been backed by the Irish Farmer’s Journal and Enterprise Ireland among other investors.
Smurfit’s daughter Sharon also invested €125,000 in the agribusiness through a company called Safest Investments. The company has now raised a total of just under €2 million to help with the rollout of its sensor.
Michael Smurfit
Sensor
Moocall’s device, which sells for about €329, is attached to a cow’s tail to monitor its activity. When the tail begins twitching spasmodically, a sign that the cow is about to give birth, the farmer is alerted.
The device is the brainchild of farmer and Birr native Niall Austin, who came up with the idea for the device in 2010. After years of testing, Moocall started trading in 2014.
Moocall creator Niall Austin
Expansion
Speaking to Fora, the company’s Nordic regional manager Per Insulan said that the extra investment will be used to push into the US, Canada and Australia.
“We are at the negotiating stage with several distributors and large retail chains which should help us to get into the US,” he said.
Insulan said that the funds would be used to increase production and staffing, “depending on how much interest we get in terms of orders”.
He added that the company, which currently has 12 full-time staff, is seeing “good interest so far”.
Insulan said that the investment from Smurfit is a vote of confidence in the business, adding “we are seeing a lot of good reviews coming in and a lot of good word of mouth”.
He said that the company has sold 12,000 units so far and has a presence in a variety of countries such as Italy, Sweden and Norway.
Moocall made a loss of just over €500,000 in the 12 months to the end of June 2015, however it would not have been selling its sensor for the whole period. Losses are not unusual for early stage startups.
