Agricultural trading platform plans to disrupt its chosen market after a recent fund raising.
Agricultural trading platform Agora Livestock is revving up its efforts to disrupt its chosen market after a successful fundraising.
Founded and run by experienced risk and operations manager Rob Kelly, Agora has added $1.2 million in new equity in recent months, on top of about $1.7 million raised since 2018, with a mix of investors stretching from Cottesloe-based corporate leaders to farm agents, and IT developers thrown in for good measure.
Mr Kelly was involved in the development of online grain marketing and trading platform DailyGrain when he was working for rural commodities trader Plum Grove. That platform is now owned by giant grain cooperative CBH Group.
The farm-raised entrepreneur sees the same opportunity in another major component of rural production, animals predominantly bred for meat and wool.
He has been backed in this new enterprise by BDO corporate finance partner Peter Toll and former Harvest Road CEO Greg Harvey, who are both directors, as well investor relations expert John Gardner, the founders of IT consultancy Hatchd and a host of rural agents.
Speaking to Business News, Mr Kelly said the Agora site has around 4,000 users and has taken over from the group’s first online iteration, LIVEstock Pricing, which had around 12,000 users at its peak and has now been shut down.
Mr Kelly said the livestock sector had not kept pace with the transparency available in the grains sector, which has had more than a decade of such development.
“You shouldn’t have to be at the radio at 1pm to hear Country Hour for the Katanning saleyard report,” Mr Kelly said.
“You should get that report on your phone as soon as it done.”
He said Agora would not just benefit farmers by showing them the latest prices, it would also help those sourcing livestock from growers such as buyers and agents, although he acknowledged that the latter sector had elements that did not welcome the potential for change.
“We have agents who are investors in our business,” Mr Kelly said.
“They see this is a way to do things more efficiently.
“It takes for too long for a buyer to find livestock or a seller to find a buyer.”
“People look at our platform and they see the market transparency/price discovery piece, what they don’t see is behind that sits a pretty complex CRM.”
Mr Kelly said he planned to shift his emphasis to sales while the further development of the platform and building the team continued apace.
