By HARRY CLARKE
A DARLING DOWNS company which has become one of Australia’s fastest growing ag-tech businesses is embarking on a $2 million crowdfunding campaign to give everyday investors a stake in its expansion into southern Australia.
DIT Technologies develops cutting edge water supplementation and remote monitoring technology which is giving farmers across northern Australia the ability to manage water more precisely and efficiently than ever before.
The Toowoomba-based company was founded in 2016 by CEO Mark Peart. It now has eight offices around the country, employs 25 people, and has a manufacturing plant in Townsville.
In the past year alone, DIT has increased its revenue by a staggering 488% to just over $3.5 million, while between 2018 and 2020 earnings increased by 1200%.
Its remote monitoring and water supplementation devices are being used by farmers at all levels of the sector, from major agribusinesses in north Queensland, the Northern Territory and northern parts of Western Australia, to family farmers in Condamine.
Now DIT is raising further capital through crowd-sourced funding to continue investing in research and development and to expand its client base into Australia’s southern states.
“Australia’s 97 million cattle and sheep are mainly grass fed and need supplements to overcome the nutritional deficiencies of native grasses to increase wellbeing.” Mr Peart told the Caller.
“In the last few years, with innovation and some smart people in our team, we’ve been able to work out how to put urea and phosphorus in the water very efficiently.
“We can pump it hundreds of kilometres in poly pipe, we can store it in tanks and charge a whole water system for livestock.
“With algorithms and technology we can deliver the supplement proportional to their bodyweight, and we can start measuring the gains.
“Our technology provides a cheaper, more effective way of supplementing livestock equally through controlled dosing of their drinking water, and Australian farmers realising up to 15% production gains and 40% cost savings.”
The capital raising project is being managed by crowd-sourced funding firm Birchal and gives investors the opportunity to invest a minimum equity payment of $250.
DIT will use the capital to continue building its team of in-house software and electronic engineers, as well as its remote camera and tank monitoring devices.
“Where we see a big play for DIT is building up the value proposition of all this data we’re now collecting to form into a data business over the next few years,” Mr Peart said.
“The capital is going to fuel our growth.”
Among the earliest adopters of DIT products were Condamine-based graziers, brothers Spencer and Godfrey Morgan.
Spencer Morgan said the business had seen great benefit from the use of water dosing equipment and “uPRO” supplements on their properties “Myall Grove” near Condamine and “Meribah” near Westmar.
“The beauty of it is all the cattle get their daily requirements every day,” he said.
“With this technology, everything’s getting a dose. It doesn’t matter whether they’re a shy feeder or not, they all come in for a drink.
“You can work out their consumption very accurately and I think this sort of technology is very under-utilised at the moment.”
For more information on the crowdfunding investment project and for expressions of interest visit DIT’s Birchal page.
