By Lynda Kiernan

Lewis & Clark Ventures has led $2.6 million in equity financing, with participation from Flyover Capital and Central Illinois Angels, for Aker Technologies.

“We are delighted to welcome investors who recognize the innovation gap in an increasingly variable climate environment and the potential of our technology across the industry,” said Orlando Saez, co-founder and CEO, Aker Technologies.

Founded by entrepreneur Orlando Saez and Minnesota corn and soybean farmer Todd Golly, Aker Technologies builds agronomic tools to optimize farm production. Based on boots-on-the-ground research, both on Golly’s 6,000-acre farm in Minnesota and in Saez’s family’s native Dominican Republic, the company advances crop diagnostics with patented technology that automates the process of “crop scouting” by detecting pest, crop damage, and other environmental stresses. Its product is unique in that all the data is under-the-canopy geo-referenced observation data, not inferred or approximated by current crop models.

Saez explained to GAI News in an interview in November 2018, “Two things are unique about our company: we focus on practical and fast crop diagnostics like weather, soil, bugs, crop conditions, and we automate the process of collecting data by going under the crop canopy to detect pests, pathogens, and disease at the earliest manifestation underneath the leaves.”

“Secondly, we work to empower ag retailers, crop consultants, and chemical suppliers with a new and unique dataset that draws from real world farming principles that work for generations to effectively address the disease triangle. Our goal is to better know what growers do, listen to what they need, and provide practical tools that they can relate to.”

The company plans to use the funding to advance its TrueCause™ crop scouting platform, which together with the Aker Pest Network™ drives the company’s ability to provide diagnostics that measure the effectiveness of inputs and drive efficient in-season crop management practices.

“Aker provides effective monitoring of insects, weeds, diseases, crop nutrient deficiency, and environmental conditions at the earliest stages of their manifestation,” Saez. told GAI News. “The result augments the grower’s abilities to identify crop threats before spreading, and early enough to drive better outcomes on crop protection product selection and application timing to drive higher yields, lower costs of treatments, and environmental sustainability from unnecessary crop treatments.”

Aker sees the efficient management of inputs and water on existing acreage as the foremost challenge in achieving sustainable agricultural production, and its innovative crop diagnostic and logistics platform that also supports ag retailers and suppliers has garnered the startup some very high-profile clients including Bayer Crop Sciences, BASF, and WinField/UNITED.

“We have seen a lot of startups building crop observation via remote sensing technologies and predictive crop models, but nothing as innovative as Aker’s technology to automate the process of crop scouting under the canopy,” said Lewis & Clark Ventures principal Larry Page, PhD. “We were particularly impressed with Aker’s early traction with some large agriculture brands, which indicates that they are addressing a real need for growers and retailers.”

Founded in 2015 by general partner Ton Hillman and managing director Brian Hopcraft, Lewis & Clark focuses on Series A and Series B investments in innovative startups located in the U.S. Midwest in sectors that include agricultural technology, enterprise software, fintech, and healthcare technology.

“St. Louis has become a center of influence for agriculture technology with its many organizations like the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, which is the world’s largest independent research institute focused on plant science, along with Washington University, Monsanto, Yield Lab AgTech accelerator and more,” said Brian Hopcraft in 2016.  “With these regional strengths, we are seeing a lot of innovative companies and look forward to backing the most promising among them.”

Now, with this new backing, Aker will also call St. Louis home, with the announcement that it plans to double the size of its team and move its offices to Creve Coeur.

“Our team is excited to have a close relationship with the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center to accelerate evidence-based field monitoring practices, along with new input and trait development,” said Saez.

 

– Lynda Kiernan is Editor with GAI Media and daily contributor to GAI News. If you would like to submit a contribution for consideration, please contact Ms. Kiernan at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.