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Only one month after snapping up the assets of failed grocery delivery service VOLY, direct-to-market meat supplier Our Cow has secured $1.6 million on crowdfunding platform Birchal less than two days after launching its campaign.
The capital injection comes eight months after the northern NSW Casino-based company raised $2.4 million on VentureCrowd, becoming the fourth-largest crowdfunding raise in 2022.
Founded four years ago by farmers Bianca Tarrant and Dave McGiveron, Our Cow is now looking to secure $2.6 million at $50 per share on a pre-money valuation of $62.67 million.
At the time of writing, the company has received the support of 832 investors, who have collectively chipped in $1.6 million within a few days of the campaign launching.
“The money is going to be used for accelerating our growth into more product ranges; imagine if you [could] wake up in the morning in metropolitan Sydney and be able to drink milk that’s come straight from a dairy farm in a local area and have it delivered to your door that morning,” McGiveron says in a webinar to potential investors.
“That’s the sort of place we want to [reach]. We want to become the Amazon for fresh food in Australia.”
According to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARES), the gross value of agricultural production in Australia is forecast to reach $85 billion in 2022−23, while the combined value of agriculture, fisheries and forestry are predicted to hit $91 billion.
In a bid to attract more subscribers, Our Cow has expanded its product range to include seafood – currently offering knobby snapper, ocean king prawn, Mooloolaba whiting fillet, barramundi and Tasmanian salmon.
“In our opinion, decreasing demand for unhealthy food products, particularly from Millennials and Generation Z, has become a more powerful agent of change than the traditional government policies or industry restrictions,” Our Cow says in its offer document to investors.
“Supermarket chains are being forced to address those concerns or be left behind as consumers redirect their weekly shopping budget and their investment dollars toward emerging foodtech companies delivering the solutions that better reflect consumer priorities.”
The company has grown its subscriber base to more than 7,500 members across Australia and has tripled its revenue from $2.6 million in FY21 to hit $8.9 million in FY22. With a 79 per cent customer retention rate, Our Cow claims it is on track to see its growth double again in the next financial year.
Employing more than 50 people, the company eventually plans to expand its product range to also include fruit and vegetables.
“It’s definitely on the radar – watch this space,” McGiveron says in the investor webinar.
Tarrant and McGiveron established Our Cow after a couple of tough years for the beef industry which was hit by drought and fires in 2019, followed by floods in 2020.
The couple was working off-farm when Tarrant decided to start selling local beef via Facebook. Our Cow now supports more than 150 farmers across Queensland and NSW.
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