Ag Tech Investments News

Vancouver, BC - Semios is pleased to announce $9.9 million in funding from Sustainable Development Technology Canada (STDC) in support of its big data initiative to improve crop yield while reducing the use of chemicals and water during production. SDTC continues to support Canadian entrepreneurs in accelerating the development and deployment of globally competitive clean technology solutions with its second substantial investment in Semios.

With this investment, Semios will develop machine learning models to predict how environmental factors and agronomic decisions impact plant stress in tree fruit and tree nut crops. Semios is building on their existing crop management network and industry-leading dataset to deliver more global economic and environmental benefits.

“Growing populations will demand maximum food production, per acre, from an industry that faces constant and increasing environmental, regulatory, and economic challenges,” says Semios Founder, and CEO, Dr. Michael Gilbert. “Managing and optimizing stress in trees is challenging and not well understood. Given the complexity of orchard ecosystems, big data and machine learning are important tools in understanding and predicting the factors that impact stress. Granular data is required to overcome the variability across orchards, geographies, and seasons. We’ll leverage data from our robust, wireless IoT network of over 500,000 in-canopy sensors to develop a better understanding of stress and its impact on production, yield, and input timing”.

“Semios is a shining example of cleantech innovation that can come from the convergence of artificial intelligence and agriculture. We’re proud to support its advancements in leveraging machine learning to improve crop production and reduce the carbon footprint of common agricultural practices,” said Leah Lawrence, President and CEO, SDTC.