Farmer wants a Wi-Fi: Zetifi lands $12 million in Series A for rural connectivity

Wagga Wagga connectivity startup Zetifi has raised $12 million in Series A funding led by Telstra and Graincorp to help roll out its Wi-Fi extension products to Aussie farmers.

This follows funding from both the New South Wales and federal governments to help test and develop its hardware.

Zetifi wants to solve connectivity issues for Australian farmers

Connectivity is a major problem in Australia’s rural and farming communities. Phone signal can be patchy, with users often having to rely on SMS over Wi-Fi services to even receive critical 2FA and emergency evacuation texts.

In fact, it was only in 2020 that Telstra even rolled out SMS over Wi-Fi technology during an investigation by this author.

Where internet is available, it can be expensive due to having to rely on the likes of satellite internet. While low-orbit satellite solutions such as Elon Musk’s Starlink are offering solutions, it’s still not enough just yet.

This is where Zetifi has stepped in to try and offer more long-range Wi-Fi solutions for farmers and rural Aussies.

These solutions include a permanent small cell that offers broadband connectivity for devices within range, as well as a roving Wi-Fi hotspot for vehicles and farm machinery. There is then a subscription service added on top of the hardware, similar to a phone or internet plan.

“We’re backhaul agnostic,” Zetifi founder and CEO Dan Winson said on a call with SmartCompany.

“What we’re trying to do is is take that connectivity, take Telstra’s connectivity, take whatever the best connectivity is for a region … and then extend that out into the fields to get the machinery, vehicles and people connected.”

Agtech is becoming an increasingly big deal in Australia, including our startup space. But despite the amazing ingenuity and hardware rolling out, it can’t be properly utilised by farmers without a reliable internet connection.

Zetifi is trying to close that gap.

“Essentially they’re all underpinned by need for high bandwidth connectivity,” Winson explains.

“Unless you’ve got a working phone, tablet or other devices it’s very hard to actually make use of that information.

“Even the Internet-of-Things solutions — you can get the things to talk to the internet, but to get back from your internet dashboard to your phone so you can decide what to do with that information, you need connectivity in the field.”

First Wagga Wagga, then the world

Operating from the regional NSW base of Wagga Wagga has allowed Zetifi to not only connect with farmers, but to receive direct feedback to help shape and improve its products.

“We’ve had a huge amount of support from hundreds of Australian farmers who are paying subscriptions and beta products that have helped us develop and understand what they actually need,” Winson says.

According to Winson, a large drive towards the Series A round was the increasing number of calls from beta customers wanting to purchase additional devices.

“We needed to ramp up manufacturing to meet the demand, which is a good problem to have,” he says.

A portion of the funding will also go towards scaling up the headcount within the business itself as demand grows.

But the startup has its sights set beyond Australia as well. Zetifi has commenced pilot programs in Canada, as well as upstate New York where the company has an office. This was made possible after Zetifi won an agtech competition run out of Cornell University.

In the meantime, Zetifi hopes to help Australian agtech grow by getting the basics right and making connectivity more reliable for farmers.

“Every farmers expects their phone to work. They need it to work. They have to make phone calls and be able to send SMS and emails,” Winson says.

“That’s why we’re focused on solving that immediate urgent problem.”