Britain’s cows have been treated to a curious gift this Valentine’s Day: a newly launched dating app called Tudder. According to its cheesy pun infused description on the App store, Tudder is “a new swipe-led matchmaking app, helping farm animals across the UK find breeding partners in the quest for moo love.”
As the name suggests, the interface bears an uncanny resemblance to Tinder, except the profiles feature the likes of “Pedigree Aberdeen Angus Bulls” or “Irish Friesian Cross In-Calf Breeding Cows.” With hoof-swipe capable smartphones still a matter of science fiction, it is up to the farmers to download the app, swipe right for yes, left for no, and effectively play “moo-pid” for their herd, the description notes.
The profiles so far link to livestock from over 43,000 farms across the UK, largely via the website SellMyLivestock, which developed Tudder. Launched back in 2014 and run by the startup Hectare Agritech, SellMyLivestock enables farmers to easily gather and combine complex livestock datasets relating to livestock pedigree, genetics, size, weight, and food productivity.
Roughly a third of UK farmers reportedly now use this site to buy, sell or breed their livestock, according to Hectare CEO Doug Bairner.
In a Valentine’s Day phone interview with AgFunderNews, Bairner explained that by moving breeding options online as well, combined with all the key breeding datasets that farmers need to make a breeding decision, it saves time, money and hassle previously associated with moving herds to and fro for to various country shows.
Issues that plague Tinder like photoshopped profiles would not affect Tudder, Bairner added.
“There’s no hiding behind fake photos,” he said, “The datasets tell the real story.”
He pointed out that cows were “even better” than humans for dating apps, as the mating decisions are so often data-driven in today’s farming. Hectare, he said, was now looking to offer products for more species while expanding globally, and was gearing up for a Series A round of funding later this year. The company also owns Graindex, an online marketplace for trading combinable crops.
In November 2018, Hectare Agritech company closed a seed round – partly crowdfunded, mostly via angel investors – and has raised a total of £2.8 million since inception, valuing it at £10 million. The company has 14 employees and is based in Rowlands Castle on West Sussex/Hampshire border
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