Vancouver’s Semios has raised a USD $75 million investment round led by Boston-based Morningside Group. Since its founding in 2010, Semios has secured a total of US$115 million in external capital.
Semios collects sensory data on every acre in near real-time, helping farmers manage the complex biosystems in orchards to optimize the sustainability and profitability of their crops.
Its cloud-based analytics platform ingests highly granular data from over one million IoT sensors in the field, measuring in-canopy microclimate, soil and plant conditions every 10 minutes. The 350 million data points collected daily feed established and proprietary models that provide guidance to improve agricultural practices addressing weather, insects, disease and water management challenges.
Semios has seen revenues double year-over-year, on average, since 2015. The company’s rapid growth is the result of its relentless focus on providing precision farming solutions that address production challenges such as insect damage encountered by growers of crops including almonds, apples, pistachios and grapes.
“The Semios IoT network, the largest in agriculture, provides critical insights into the relationships between organisms and their environments, leveraging big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence,” said Semios CEO & founder, Dr. Michael Gilbert.
“We amplify the experience and confidence of farmers by providing a clear picture of how environmental and agronomic factors influence the yield and grade of their crops. This investment will help us continue to deliver innovative solutions to the most pressing problems growers have told us they face.”
The funds raised enable Semios to accelerate research, development, partnerships or acquisitions to use in-field data to help growers around the world reduce chemical inputs, improve water management and increase crop outcomes.
Semios helps manage more than 150,000 acres of permanent crops, including over 500 farms in the United States. Its in-field data and control systems make it simpler and more efficient for growers to adopt technology to address their most pressing problems in crop production.