Craig Piggott: From Waikato Dairy Farm to Halter CEO
The story of the New Zealand engineer who took an idea shaped by farm life, spent time at Rocket Lab, and built Halter into a global agricultural technology company.
Introduction
Craig Piggott knows farm work first-hand.
He grew up around dairy farming in New Zealand’s Waikato region, where early starts, cattle movement and long working days were part of everyday life. Years later, those same farm problems gave him an idea.
Could technology handle some of that work?
That question eventually led to Halter.
Piggott is now the founder and CEO of the New Zealand agricultural technology company, which uses smart cattle collars, virtual fencing and farm-management software. His path there was unusual: engineering school, a short spell at Rocket Lab, then a startup built around a problem he had watched since childhood.
Quick Facts About Craig Piggott
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Craig Piggott |
| Born | Around July 1994 |
| Age | About 32 years old in 2026 |
| Nationality | New Zealander |
| Raised In | Waikato, New Zealand |
| Profession | Engineer and entrepreneur |
| Education | University of Auckland |
| Degree | BE(Hons) in Mechanical Engineering |
| University Honour | First Class Honours |
| Early Work | Fisher & Paykel Healthcare |
| Former Employer | Rocket Lab |
| Known For | Founding Halter |
| Current Role | Founder and CEO of Halter |
| Major 2025 Honour | University of Auckland Young Alumnus of the Year |
| Major 2026 Honour | New Zealand Innovator of the Year |
Early Life on a Waikato Dairy Farm
Craig Piggott grew up around dairy farming in Waikato.
It was hands-on work.
His family worked in an industry where jobs do not simply stop because the day is getting long. Cows still need attention. Milking has a schedule. Weather can change plans fast.
Published profiles describe his upbringing around the Matamata and Morrinsville area.
He saw the workload closely.
His parents could work very long days, and Piggott helped around the farm while growing up. That experience stayed with him.
Actually, it became useful years later.
Instead of viewing common farming routines as fixed, he began asking whether machines and software could handle some of them differently.
Automation caught his interest early.
That interest eventually became his career.
School Years
Piggott attended St Peter’s in Cambridge, New Zealand, where he boarded during his school years.
He has described himself as an average student at that stage.
Engineering was not guaranteed.
He focused on subjects that could get him into an engineering degree and entered the University of Auckland engineering programme with a score of 254 when the stated entry mark was 250.
It was close.
University quickly tested him.
One University of Auckland profile says he scored zero out of ten on his first test. He then changed how he worked and started putting far more effort into his studies.
The results changed too.
University of Auckland
Piggott studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Auckland.
He became involved with Formula SAE, where students work on formula-style racing cars. The project put him around other students who enjoyed solving hard engineering problems.
It suited him.
He also became involved with the university’s entrepreneurship community.
During 2016, he took part in the Velocity Ideas Challenge and won a cash prize with his team.
By graduation, the student who had barely cleared engineering entry had earned a Bachelor of Engineering with First Class Honours.
University records list his BE(Hons) qualification in 2017.
Early Engineering Work
Before building his own company, Craig Piggott gained product-development experience at Fisher & Paykel Healthcare.
His next move had a bigger effect.
He joined Rocket Lab.
At that time, Rocket Lab was still much smaller than the space company people know today. Piggott entered during his final university year and worked as a mechanical engineer.
He stayed for roughly nine months.
Short stay. Big effect.
Meeting Peter Beck
Piggott met Rocket Lab founder Sir Peter Beck through a University of Auckland entrepreneurship event.
After Beck spoke, Piggott approached him and talked about a side project he was working on.
The conversation helped open a door.
Piggott joined Rocket Lab and saw what a highly focused engineering team could achieve, even while working on problems many people considered extremely hard.
That experience changed the scale of his thinking.
He began looking back at farming.
If engineers in New Zealand could work on rockets, why could engineering not remove some of the repetitive physical jobs farmers had handled the same way for decades?
That thought stuck.
Leaving Rocket Lab
Piggott began working on his farming idea while still at Rocket Lab.
He worked outside normal hours.
The early concept centred on a cattle collar that could track an animal and help guide its movement without requiring a farmer to physically move every cow.
Eventually, he had to choose.
He left Rocket Lab after about nine months and committed himself to the new company.
Peter Beck supported the move. He became an early investor in Halter and served as a mentor to Piggott.
That relationship gave the young founder valuable support during a very uncertain stage.
Starting Halter
Piggott started Halter around the end of 2016.
University records describe the company launching in 2017 with a small team of six.
The idea sounded simple on paper: make cattle easier to move, monitor and manage through technology.
Building it was anything but simple.
The team had to handle hardware, software, wireless communication, battery power, animal behaviour, location tracking and farm conditions.
Farm equipment takes a beating.
Mud happens. Rain happens. Cows push into things. Hardware gets knocked around.
So the collar had to survive real farm life, not a clean engineering lab.
The team tested version after version.
At first, many things simply failed.
Still, they kept testing.
How Halter Works
Halter developed a system built around smart collars worn by cattle.
Each collar connects with software used by the farmer.
The system can help farmers create virtual boundaries, guide cattle between areas, check animal location and watch behaviour linked with health.
Farmers can set grazing areas through an app.
The collars use learned audio and vibration cues to guide animals. The system can also use a low-energy pulse under defined conditions.
This means farmers can manage cattle movement without setting up a physical temporary fence every time a grazing area changes.
The software also gives farmers data.
So the product grew beyond cattle movement.
Halter became a wider farm-management system covering virtual fencing, pasture use, livestock movement and animal monitoring.
Turning a Farm Problem Into a Global Company
For years, Halter focused heavily on New Zealand farms.
Then its reach grew.
The company moved into beef farming as well as dairy. It entered Australia and pushed into the United States, where ranches can operate across far larger areas.
That created another use case for virtual fencing.
Physical distance matters.
A rancher may need to manage animals spread over a huge property. Being able to change a virtual boundary from software can save repeated trips across that land.
By March 2026, Halter said it served more than 2,000 ranchers and farmers across New Zealand, Australia and the United States.
The company also reported one million solar-powered collars sold.
That’s a long way from six people.
Halter Funding and US$2 Billion Valuation
Halter has raised money through several funding rounds as it has grown.
Its biggest disclosed round arrived in March 2026.
Halter announced a US$220 million Series E funding round led by Founders Fund, with participation from investors including Blackbird, DCVC, Bond, Bessemer, NewView, Ubiquity, Promus and Icehouse Ventures.
The round valued Halter at US$2 billion.
That valuation belongs to the company.
It should not be confused with Craig Piggott’s personal wealth.
Halter’s Fast Growth
Halter’s commercial growth has received outside recognition too.
In 2024, the company took the top position in New Zealand’s Deloitte Fast 50.
Deloitte recorded revenue growth of 1,539% across three years.
The company kept expanding after that, especially in Australia and the United States.
Its customer base grew.
So did the number of cattle wearing its collars.
Craig Piggott’s Leadership Style
Piggott often talks about hard work, persistence and solving the problem directly in front of you.
The farming background makes sense here.
Farm life can be unforgiving.
A broken system still needs fixing. Animals still need care. Work continues even if the timing is bad.
He has carried some of that thinking into Halter.
His Rocket Lab experience also shaped how he thinks about teams. He saw how a small group of skilled people could work on technical problems that looked unrealistic from the outside.
At Halter, hiring strong people became one of his main jobs as the company grew.
Awards and Recognition
Piggott’s work has brought several major honours.
He was selected for the University of Auckland’s 40 Under 40 list in 2019.
In 2021, he appeared on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list.
The University of Auckland named him its Young Alumnus of the Year in 2025.
Then came another major award.
In March 2026, Piggott received the 2degrees New Zealand Innovator of the Year — Te Pou Whakairo o te Tau award at the Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year Awards.
The award recognised his work building Halter and taking its farming technology into overseas markets.
Personal Life
Piggott keeps most of his private life away from his company profile.
Public interviews have touched on marriage and becoming a father, but his public work remains centred on Halter, engineering, farming and company building.
That separation has largely kept attention on his work rather than his household.
Where Is Craig Piggott Now?
As of 2026, Craig Piggott remains the founder and CEO of Halter.
His company now works across New Zealand, Australia and the United States.
The scale has changed dramatically.
What began as an attempt to make farm work easier has become a company valued at US$2 billion, with more than 2,000 customers reported during its March 2026 funding announcement.
Piggott is still closely tied to the original idea.
Build technology around real farm problems.
Then test it in the real world.
Craig Piggott Career Timeline
Around 1994: Born in New Zealand.
School years: Boards at St Peter’s in Cambridge.
University years: Studies Mechanical Engineering at the University of Auckland.
2016: Takes part in the Velocity Ideas Challenge.
2016: Joins Rocket Lab while completing university studies.
Late 2016: Leaves Rocket Lab and starts working full-time on Halter.
2017: Halter grows with an early team of six.
2017: University records list Piggott’s BE(Hons) qualification.
2019: Named to the University of Auckland 40 Under 40.
2021: Appears on Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia.
2024: Halter tops the Deloitte Fast 50 in New Zealand.
2025: Named University of Auckland Young Alumnus of the Year.
2026: Wins New Zealand Innovator of the Year.
March 2026: Halter raises US$220 million at a US$2 billion valuation.
Final Thought
Craig Piggott’s story starts with a familiar problem.
Farm work takes time.
He knew that because he lived around it.
Engineering gave him a way to question old routines, while Rocket Lab showed him how far a small technical team could push an idea.
Then he went back to farming.
Halter came from that mix.
Today, the company is far bigger than the early collar experiments, yet the basic idea remains easy to understand: find a tough farm job, test another way to handle it, and keep working until the product works in an actual paddock.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Craig Piggott?
Craig Piggott is a New Zealand engineer and entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of agricultural technology company Halter.
How old is Craig Piggott?
Reporting from 2024 said Piggott turned 30 around July of that year. That places him at about 32 years old in September 2026.
Where did Craig Piggott grow up?
He grew up around dairy farming in the Waikato region of New Zealand, with public profiles linking his childhood to the Matamata and Morrinsville area.
What did Craig Piggott study?
He studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Auckland and graduated with First Class Honours.
Did Craig Piggott work at Rocket Lab?
Yes. He worked as a mechanical engineer at Rocket Lab for roughly nine months before leaving to build Halter.
What company did Craig Piggott start?
He founded Halter, an agricultural technology company that makes smart livestock collars and software for virtual fencing, animal monitoring and farm management.
What is Halter worth?
Halter announced a US$220 million Series E round in March 2026 at a company valuation of US$2 billion.
What award did Craig Piggott win in 2026?
He won the 2degrees New Zealand Innovator of the Year award at the 2026 Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year Awards.
