MACSO
MACSO builds sensory AI for livestock health.
- Category
- AI and B2B SaaS
- Fund
- NZVC II
- Website
- www.macso.ai
- On TechMates
- 1 episode
What MACSO does
MACSO's system listens to animals in a shed and picks up respiratory illness early from audio alone, without handling or testing the animal. Saba Samiei, who worked at IBM, Westpac and Microsoft and holds a master's in AI ethics from AUT, started the company in Auckland in April 2021 and named it after MACS0647-JD, then the furthest known galaxy from the Milky Way.
The secret
A sick animal sounds different before it looks different. Audio is a passive, continuous signal across a whole shed, so respiratory illness can be caught early without anyone handling or testing a single animal.
Why NZVC invested in MACSO
NZVC invested in MACSO from NZVC Fund II. We file the company under AI and B2B SaaS on the portfolio wall.
We backed MACSO because respiratory illness in livestock is expensive and is usually caught late, and audio gives a continuous read on a whole shed without touching an animal. Saba Samiei brought applied experience from IBM, Westpac and Microsoft together with a master's in AI ethics from AUT, which matters in a category where farmers have to trust what the model tells them. Sensory AI applied to animal health is a large market that almost nobody was working on when she started in 2021.
MACSO in the press
- NZ Entrepreneur reported MACSO's AI detecting respiratory illness in pigsNZ Entrepreneur · 26 November 2024
- MACSO signed animal respiratory health trials with Chinese farmsNZ Entrepreneur, Scoop · 18 January 2024
- NZ Entrepreneur interviewed MACSO founder Saba SamieiNZ Entrepreneur · 4 April 2023
- NZ Entrepreneur covered MACSO's use of AI to catch illness in animalsNZ Entrepreneur · 7 November 2022
MACSO on TechMates
What Happens When AI Listens to Sick Pigs for Six Days Straight?
You hear Saba Samiei, the Iran-born, New Zealand-based founder of MACSO, explain how edge AI audio sensors listen to pigs and catch respiratory illness up to six days before a trained human ear can. She makes the case for sensory AI and physical AI as the next wave after large language models. She also walks through the multi-year distribution deal with Virbac, one of the world's largest animal health companies, that followed.
“AI can do anything a trained human can, in one second.”Saba Samiei
- MACSO's sensors run two AI models on the device itself (edge AI) to flag respiratory signatures, then a dashboard layer confirms whether an outbreak is starting.
- Respiratory illness causes about 60% of swine deaths globally each year; early detection lets farmers act sooner and use fewer antibiotics.
- The second-generation device adds temperature and humidity sensing alongside audio, with green, yellow and red alerts that text the farmer.