The Transition
~Three years after Merck Animal Health acquired Vence in September 2022, founder and CEO Frank Wooten is passing the baton to Janette Barnard, Director of Merck Animal Health Ventures. This leadership change, while diplomatically positioned as strategic evolution, reveals the complexity of integrating hardware-centric AgTech companies into traditional pharmaceutical operations.
Wooten's nine-year run as founding CEO is admirable—most startup founders don't survive that long, let alone through a major acquisition. But his LinkedIn transition post speaks volumes: "I believe that Merck Animal Health is the best long-term home for this technology and our team" while acknowledging the need for "the incomparable Janette Barnard" to lead the next chapter.
Why Janette Barnard Makes Strategic Sense
Barnard brings a rare combination that's exactly what Vence needs: startup founder experience paired with deep corporate integration knowledge. Her background includes:
Startup Founder DNA: Built and ran The Poultry Exchange, an online marketplace for chicken meat transactions
Corporate Navigation Skills: Director of Merck Animal Health Ventures since March 2021, focused on corporate venture investments in digital products for livestock producers
Cross-Value Chain Experience: Commercial roles at Elanco, Cargill, and McDonald's Global Supply Chain
Industry Credibility: Authors Prime Future, the weekly newsletter for livestock innovation
This isn't typical corporate succession planning—it's strategic recognition that scaling hardware inside pharma requires someone who speaks both languages fluently.
The Momentum Reality Check
While Vence navigates internal integration, the external competitive landscape tells a different story. Halter just raised $165 million at a $1 billion valuation, officially becoming New Zealand's latest unicorn. The Auckland-based virtual fencing company is expanding rapidly in the US with about 150 ranchers across 18 states and plans to double its headcount to 400 by end of 2025.
The contrast is stark: while Vence integrates within a $4.7 billion animal health division, Halter operates as an independent, venture-backed growth engine with singular focus on virtual fencing expansion.
That said, Vence has quietly built impressive institutional credibility that shouldn't be underestimated:
Government Validation: USDA Forest Service partnerships where virtual fencing proves "more than 90% effective at keeping cattle where they belong and out of Gila National Forest riparian exclosures". The Fowler Ranch deployment in New Mexico demonstrates real-world functionality under government oversight.
NRCS Integration: The Natural Resources Conservation Service now funds Virtual Fencing projects for producers, with NRCS actively promoting VF as a precision livestock management tool.
Commercial Traction: Operations like Colorado's Fitch Ranch, which won USDA Forest Service Rangeland Management honors for implementing Vence's virtual fencing system and successfully evacuated 120 head of cattle within an hour during wildfire threats.
The Corporate Integration Challenge
Historical Context: This isn't Merck's first rodent rodeo with AgTech hardware. The animal health industry graveyard is littered with promising acquisitions that never scaled—remember when Zoetis bought Abaxis for $2 billion, then struggled to integrate point-of-care diagnostics into their pharmaceutical sales model?
Distribution Mismatch: Pharmaceutical sales teams excel at relationships with veterinarians who make purchasing decisions for drugs and vaccines. Virtual fencing requires different buyer personas—ranch managers, grazing consultants, and operations directors who think in terms of ROI over 3-5 year periods, not treatment protocols.
Support Infrastructure: Virtual fencing costs about "$50 each per year" for cow collars, "$10,000 each for communication stations," plus software and setup—totaling around $25,000 for a typical ranch operation. This isn't a product you can distribute through traditional animal health channels.
What This Signals
Three patterns emerge from Vence's leadership transition:
Acquisition Integration Timelines Are Longer Than Expected: 2.5 years to complete leadership transition suggests the complexity of hardware integration inside pharma operations
Specialized Leadership Is Required: Barnard's appointment signals recognition that hardware scaling requires different competencies than pharmaceutical commercialization
The Virtual Fencing Market Is Bifurcating: Independent players like Halter pursue rapid venture-backed expansion while corporate-owned entities like Vence focus on institutional validation and systematic integration
The Next Chapter
Barnard inherits a solid foundation—government partnerships, proven technology, and Merck's distribution infrastructure. But she also faces the challenge of competing against venture-backed rivals with simpler decision-making structures and faster resource allocation.
The real test isn't whether Vence's technology works (it clearly does), but whether Merck Animal Health can build the specialized go-to-market machinery needed to scale hardware products in agricultural markets that operate on fundamentally different timelines than pharmaceutical sales cycles.