Ontario-based software startup secured $1.7-million in seed financing.
By Andrew Joseph, Farms.com; Image via Pixabay.com
IntelliCulture, a Waterloo, Ontario-based software developer, has secured $1.7-million in seed financing to allow for growth of its farm management platform.
Funding was created via a group of strategic investors and industry experts, led by Emmertech (an agtech focused venture capital fund managed and operated by Conexus Venture Capital) and supported by 519 Growth Fund.
IntelliCulture was founded in 2018, and provides equipment management software for farms to provide insights into spray coverage, operational health and labour management. The platform helps growers realize savings through digitizing and automating the management process.
Since its inception, IntelliCulture has grown to serve growers across North America, ranging from small-town family operations to Fortune 500 wineries.
Said Cole Powers, Chief Executive Officer for IntelliCulture: “We have more growers and product requests coming inbound than we could have ever anticipated, so we will certainly be growing the team. We plan to double our headcount within the next year, and this support and capital enables us to scale smarter, faster and go further.”
IntelliCulture primarily serves growers in the high-value crop space, but is lately extending its reach into other crop types through its plug-and-play platform. It offers IOT (Internet of Things) devices that are backwards compatible with all makes, models and years of machinery on the farm that feed data into their reporting and software.
By outfitting the entire farm with devices, growers will be able to better understand their spray coverage and efficiencies, as well as manage upkeep of their assets.
“Seeing our growers transition from journals and whiteboards to literally saving hours in a day through our completely automated system to manage their fleet is a huge win for us at the IntelliCulture team,” stated Powers. “These day-to-day wins are what make the switch to technology worthwhile, and it still makes me smile every time I hear one of our growers share how they are able to get home an hour earlier because of the system. I will never forget having breakfast with one of our California growers, where the Ranch Supervisor told us "[he] just bought [his] first house and is really looking to get some balance back in life the last six months. The GPS units really help with that; [he] used to have to drive all over the county and now [he] can come home for dinner".”
The bigger savings, though, come from a review of seasonal data. IntelliCulture notes that is where the future of the platform lies—in predictive algorithms in overall farm planning and operation. Some of its long-standing customers are already redesigning their future vineyard layouts and managerial practices based on the recommendations from the IntelliCulture platform to realize efficiency gains in excess of 30 percent.
When discussing the vision of the IntelliCulture, Powers commented on the philosophy of the company; "We believe precision agriculture should be accessible to all. In the future, whether we like it or not, farming is going to look different than what we are used to. The vision we are so excited about is helping farms realize further value from various technologies as we help lighten the load of management and automate planning. We see it as the only way really.
"Something has to be done to bridge the gap between tech and the farm, and we think we can do just that. As data and automation continue to become more prevalent, we hope to help our growers maintain a position of confidence while navigating their transition into farms of the future."
More information on IntelliCulture may be found at https://www.intelliculture.com.