Hi everyone,

We have an exciting opportunity to invest in MACSO, an Auckland-based AI startup building the "Intel Inside" for animal health by developing the world's first AI models for animal disease diagnosis exclusively through audio. New Zealand is a global leader in AgTech, and MACSO is a prime example of the world-class companies emerging here.

We are sharing this opportunity with our syndicate now because MACSO has just secured a massive €48M minimum-spend distribution contract with global pharma giant Virbac. Backed by clinical trials showing a 75% reduction in livestock mortality, this global rollout will dramatically accelerate MACSO's data network effects, turning every deployed sensor into a node that continuously trains their acoustic AI models, creating an insurmountable technical moat.

We are participating in their $4-$6M NZD Series A and have space for co-investors in our allocation.

Recent Traction & Why We're Excited

We are excited to participate in this round because MACSO has aggressively de-risked their commercial and clinical pathways. While they’re mostly pre-revenue, their forward-looking pipeline is fully contracted and validated:

• Massive €48M Global Distribution Contract: They recently signed a 5+5 year distribution contract with Virbac (a global animal health pharmaceutical leader) covering Europe, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific. The contract includes a €48M minimum spend commitment over 10 years.

• Clinical-Grade Trial Results: Independent trials in the US and Spain have definitively proven the product's ROI. The system detected respiratory illness up to 6 days earlier than trained human operators and reduced mortality rates by 75% (from 4.8% to 1.4%) across a 2,400-pig trial in Minnesota.

• Manufacturing Ready for Global Scale: They have signed 5 major hardware and manufacturing partners (including AVNET, Inventec, and UniGen) and are production-ready for their global commercial rollout.

The AI Moat: Data Network Effects & Proprietary Models

Macso is a pioneer in building proprietary machine learning models for animal health diagnoses exclusively through audio.

• Data Flywheel & Network Effects: As MACSO scales through Virbac's massive global distribution network, every deployed sensor feeds critical acoustic data and insights back into their central platform. This creates a powerful network data effect: the more farms they deploy to, the smarter their disease classification models become across diverse geographic environments, barn acoustics, and animal breeds. This ever-accumulating, proprietary dataset creates an insurmountable technical moat that competitors will not be able to replicate.

• Edge AI vs. The Cloud: Beyond their AI moat, MACSO is structurally positioned to dominate the intensive livestock farming market, which currently relies on highly inefficient manual human observation.

• Structural Edge AI Advantage: We love this deal because MACSO has a structural, 10x cost and technology advantage over their only meaningful competitor (SoundTalks). While the competition relies on a $2,600 cloud-dependent setup that requires expensive mesh networks, MACSO utilizes a $250 edge-based architecture. Processing the audio directly on the device means lower latency, perfect privacy (audio never leaves the farm), and no reliance on rural internet bandwidth.

• Macro Tailwinds: Furthermore, they are riding massive macro tailwinds: increasing regulatory pressure on antibiotic use (like the 2022 EU ban), severe agricultural labor shortages, and rising global ESG/animal welfare standards.

The Team

This is an ambitious, mission-driven team led by Saba Samiei (Founder & CEO), an award-winning AI leader with a computer science background and corporate execution experience across Microsoft, IBM, and Westpac.

Product & Beachhead Market

Their perfect first use case is respiratory health monitoring in swine, representing a $1-$2B SAM (ex-China).

• The New Zealand Connection: MACSO is proudly headquartered in Auckland, leveraging local R&D while building a purely global business, with active deployments spanning the US, Europe, and ANZ.

• Current Capabilities: Their Gen 1 plug-and-play device uses two edge-optimized AI models running on ESP32 chips (one for noise filtering, one for respiratory disease classification), providing real-time alerts via a mobile app and LED indicators.

• Platform Extensibility: While they are starting with audio-only swine monitoring, the platform is built to eventually incorporate multi-sensor fusion (temperature, humidity, vision) and expand into massive adjacent markets like poultry and cattle.

Unit Economics & The Deal

• Commercial Model: Highly scalable B2B2B go-to-market. They sell through massive pharma distributors, bypassing the need for an expensive direct-to-farmer sales force. The unit economics are highly attractive: a $250 USD sensor (targeting 60%+ hardware margins at scale) paired with a $16-$20/month SaaS subscription.

• The Deal: They are raising a $4-$6M NZD Series A at a $25M NZD (~$15M USD) pre-money valuation. This capital will fund the immediate execution of the Virbac contract, expansion into US and ANZ distribution channels, and the hiring of senior operational leadership to support global scale.

The fee structure for this deal is as follows:

• Fund LPs: 1% Management Fee / 10% Carry

• Other syndicate Investors: Standard 2% Management Fee / 20% Carry

• Costs: One-time SPV setup costs will be shared pro-rata across all SPV investors.

Please reply to this email if you'd like to review the deck or discuss the allocation further.