Dairy company Happy Cow Milk has finished its equity crowdfunding on Pledgeme, hitting its minimum target and raising $566,355 from 647 investors.
The company founded by farmer Glen Herud raised $400,000 in its first crowdfunding round in 2019, with those funds used to build its “milk factory in a box” prototype.
Herud says the company is selling a software and hardware package farmers can use to process milk to relevant standards and sell it to local customers.
Farmers put the milk into a set of tanks which act as a processing hub that pasteurises the milk. From there, they deliver the tanks to community milk retailers, which could be cafés, schools or people doing home delivery.
The milk is packaging-free, as customers bring their own bottles and the tanks are monitored digitally so the temperature and quantity can be tracked in real-time.
All payments are processed through the Happy Cow app, with the farmer, retailer and Happy Cow each receiving a cut of each litre sold, instantly.
The company sold shares for $3 each. It plans to use the cash to launch a pilot farm, develop its software and hardware and produce more tanks and hubs so it can scale-up in 2022.
It’s budgeting to have 37 farmers using its system and selling 1000 litres a day in the 2025 financial year. It estimates farmers would make about $100,000 annual profit on 1000 litres.
It still needs approval from the Ministry for Primary Industries.
