The Nest helps Agora cut the fat.
Established in late 2019, by Hatchd co-founders and digital veterans, Anna Lee-Renwick and Marc Loveridge, ‘The Nest’ was formed to help Australian born ventures create, launch and grow successful software businesses through our ready-to-go and highly experienced venture team. After almost 20 years of delivering digital products and services on a fee for service model, the pair felt it was time to put their experience and team capabilities to the ultimate test.
After almost 2 years in stealth mode The Nest is pleased to announce it’s first deal, a 7.5% stake in Agora Livestock. A deal which will see The Nest bring software business strategy and product development services in return for reduced fees and shares in the Western Australian agtech venture.
Agora (previously known as LIVEstock Pricing) is founded by ex Plum Grove Senior Commodity & Derivatives Manager Rob Kelly and backed by an array of agriculture industry leaders that includes Greg Harvey (ex Harvest Road). The new business is on a mission to become ‘the operating system of the livestock industry’ by bringing transparency to the opaque nature by which buyers and sellers in the industry currently trade.
A ‘Carsales.com for cows’, the business caught the eye of Nest founders Lee-Renwick and Loveridge when they were approached to help rebuild the existing mobile and web apps. “The problem Rob was trying to solve really caught our attention, more than the tech”, said Loveridge. “It seemed like one of the last remaining supply chains yet to be transformed by digitisation. Deals are discussed, struck and executed on a handshake and so a clear picture of deal value is rarely available. “Where deal value is opaque, you’ll always find agents, adds Lee Renwick”. So it came as no surprise that agents and sub agents are having a good time of it in the livestock trade.” she added. “We saw this as an opportunity to cut out the middle man, or at least trim some of the fat from the supply chain for bringing price and deal transparency to one of the oldest industries there is”, she concluded.
With our focus on ventures between early and growth stages across agriculture and health, the opportunity to help Agora accelerate its business through our venture studio perfectly matched our investment strategy and existing industry experience.
“When Anna and Marc explained their purpose behind The Nest and said they wanted to get involved with Agora, it was a little unexpected but really made sense,” Kelly said. We were two people with a capital raise underway and a long list of things to do. The Nest had a ready-to-go team who've "been there, built that" and were willing to back our venture as would-be co-founders, it’s pretty compelling, Kelly added”.”It was less of an issue back in 2019 but trying to build a quality software development team in 2021, no matter how much capital you have, is an almost impossible task now and these guys are proven at getting it done, I’m so happy to have them in my corner,” he added.
After 8 months of planning and development, the business successfully launched a first release of the New Agora app and web trading platform in November 2021. The new service has been warmly welcomed by both buyers and sellers as it begins to get visibility and traction.