Scottish Investment Bank invests in farming technology company

Silent Herdsman Limited has raised £3 million of investment from leading UK institutional investors to support its continuing growth and international expansion.

The investment has been made by an investor syndicate led by Scottish Equity Partners (SEP) and comprising Albion Ventures and the Scottish Investment Bank, the investment arm of Scottish Enterprise.

The funding will assist Silent Herdsman in accelerating the growth of its global ecosystem and customer base. In addition the funding will enable the expansion of the range of animal health and welfare monitoring services that the company provides to farmers around the world.

Silent Herdsman is a decision-support platform that features a unique high-tech behaviour-monitoring collar, which triggers alerts to a farmer’s mobile phone, tablet, laptop and/or PC to identify a change in activity, for example oestrus detection, using predictive analytics software.

It provides the basis for a highly scalable and highly functional software system that assists farms to take swift and precise actions based on animal activity, which in virtually all cases, greatly enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of their beef and dairy herd business.

Using a pioneering patented2 technology, Silent Herdsman has the ability to deliver highly accurate health predictions resulting in improvements in animal health, increased milk yield, and enhanced profitability for famers on a rapid payback.

Stuart Paterson, Partner at SEP said, “There are currently over 1 billion beef and dairy cows world-wide and over 34m dairy cows in the EU and US alone. This number is continuing to grow as countries get wealthier and demand for dairy products increases. As a result, this represents a market opportunity of over $1bn per annum to Silent Herdsman. Moreover, the solution significantly enhances the efficiency of world food production which is of global concern. The company is rapidly making sales both in the UK and internationally, and as a result, SEP is delighted to support the company’s growth plans.”

Robert Whitby-Smith, Partner at Albion Ventures said, “We are excited about the opportunity to back the Silent Herdsman team and their ambitious growth plans. The animal health monitoring market is expected to grow rapidly and Silent Herdsman’s differentiated, and patented, products are poised to capitalise on this.”

Annette MacDougall, CEO at Silent Herdsman commented, “This investment underpins our unique and distinguishing product features and represents a significant endorsement towards our global expansion plans. The Silent Herdsman predictive analytic software platform is uniquely positioned to assist dairy and beef farms globally to bolster productivity gains, improve operational performance and increase profit on farm. We are delighted to be working with a sterling team of professional and knowledgeable investors who have supported our technology roadmap for taking on-line data services towards internationalisation and expansion.”

Kerry Sharp, Head of the Scottish Investment Bank, said, “We are pleased to be part of this investment round, alongside our private sector partners. Silent Herdsman is an exciting, forward-thinking company with an international mindset. Scottish Enterprise has worked closely with Silent Herdsman since its inception to help it grow and enter the market with its unique technology. This funding is the latest stage of an integrated package of support that will allow the company to realise its strategic growth plans.”