June 11, 2019

This article will be featured along with other articles addressing investment opportunities in agriculture technology and surrounding themes in the GAI Gazette, Volume 6, Issue 2, which will be distributed in conjunction with the 5th annual AgTech Nexus USA event, held in Chicago on July 22-23, 2019. Join us in Chicago to hear valuable insight and best practices from the expert speaking faculty. Learn more and register.

By Lynda Kiernan and Michelle Pelletier Marshall

“If the bee disappeared off the face of the earth, man would only have four years left to live.” – Maurice Maeterlinck, Belgian Nobel Prize winner for Literature, The Life of the Bee, 1901

“They are dancers, architects, and alchemists, making gold…” – Peggy Hansen, photographer and organic farmer

Bees are our critical partners, safeguarding human well-being and the success of our agricultural production systems. They are a key component to food security, with one out of every three bites of food we eat being dependent on the work they do as pollinators. They ensure biodiversity, healthy ecosystems, and human nutrition, with 75 percent of the world’s fruit and seed crops dependent, at some level, on natural pollination for continued production.

From apples to almonds to alfalfa grown for cattle feed, every year crops valued at $20 billion depend on bees, which also produce $150 million in honey on an annual basis.

However, in recent years there has been a widely tracked and steady decline in honeybee numbers due to a phenomenon that has come to be known as colony collapse disorder. Over the winter of 2006-2007, beekeepers began to experience hive losses of between 30 and 90 percent, reporting scenarios that had never before been seen that included:

~ The sudden disappearance of a large percentage of worker bees from a hive.

~ Very few dead bees in the proximate area to the colony.

~ The queen and young bees (brood) remaining in the hive with ample honey and pollen, yet destined to die because a hive cannot support itself without worker bees.

Stepping back and taking a longer view, this may have been happening for longer than was originally thought. Between 1947 and 2005 the honeybee population in the U.S. plummeted by more than 40 percent, with a third of the losses happening over the winter months, far outpacing the usual loss rate of 15 to 20 percent for a health bee colony. This shifted in 2005 when beekeepers reported more losses over the summer months than the winter for the first time.

The situation continued to escalate. In 2014 honeybee keepers lost 39 percent of their hives, followed by 42.1 percent in 2016. Then over the 12 months between April 2015 and April 2016, researchers found that honeybee keepers lost 44 percent of their colonies. If left unchecked, at this rate, it was determined that honeybees would disappear by 2035.

The economic fallout has already been felt. In California, pollination fees have almost quadrupled for the states’ farmers, climbing from $51.99 per hive in 2003 to $200 per hive for the 2018 growing season. And the financial toll is being felt on both sides of the equation. In 2012 the entire U.S. commercial honeybee industry had a value of approximately $500 million. However, over the course of the five years to 2017, Bret Adee, the largest beekeeper in the U.S., told The New York Times that he estimated the industry took an economic hit of possibly $1.2 billion due to colony collapse disorder.

From bee suppliers to farmers to consumers, this phenomenon is financially affecting the entire supply chain, and agtech startups are working diligently to develop technologies that can mitigate the problem before our food supply is also negatively affected.

Tech Steps Up

The problem has been identified, tracked, and studied, but the exact cause of colony collapse disorder remains somewhat elusive. There are a number of factors that researchers believe are contributing to colony loss, including pesticide usage (particularly neonicotinoids, which have been proven to disrupt a bee’s memory and ability to navigate), climate change, parasites and mites (Varroa destructor), and loss of habitat and biodiversity.

Although the exact cause has not been definitively isolated, the disorder remains – and tech companies have been working to develop novel and fascinating solutions.

A Japanese startup headed by Eijiro Myiako, a researcher at the country’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, has developed bee-sized quad-copter drones that it hopes will one day serve as artificial pollinators.

The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Robots at Harvard University is also using robotics to prepare for what it refers to as a “silent spring scenario”, or a future with no bees at all, creating RoboBees, or Autonomous Flying Microbots, that have both wings and sensors that allow them to respond to their environment.

After five years in development, researchers at the Wyss Institute believe that RoboBees could be the answer to future pollination, however, Christina Grozinger, director of the Center for Pollinator Research at Penn State University, told NBC News of her doubts.

“The idea that we can mechanize that is not really likely,” said Grozinger, noting that nature is far too complex for a one-stop solution.

“That’s not going to fly. One problem is that there are more than 20,000 species of bees in the world, each of which has evolved to pollinate a particular plant or plants. Bumble bees are great at pollinating tomatoes. Honeybees are great pollinators for blueberries. And alfalfa leafcutter bees are great pollinators for, well, alfalfa.”

In Australia, CSIRO and its partners are using wearable technology that is safely glued onto each bee, allowing researchers to track individual bees, collecting data on stress factors, disease, pollution, pesticides, and water contamination to determine exactly what is at the root of mass colony die-offs.

Two separate research initiatives at Washington State University have been working from different angles to save the bees. One found that mycelium extract from mushrooms has been shown to nearly completely eliminate the presence of certain virus strains in bee colonies. A second developed a microscopic particle that can be used in a powder form to act as a microsponge, attracting pesticide residue that would normally build up in a bee’s body.

Machine learning has also shown promise in fighting mites. Students at Switzerland’s École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne have developed ApiZoom, a high-speed image recognition tool. Beekeepers can take photos using their smartphone, upload it to the ApiZoom platform, and be alerted to the presence of mites on their bees within seconds.

A Warsaw startup, Saatchi & Saatchi, has created a biodegradable, glucose-infused paper that can act as a “refueling station” for tired bees, and scientists at MIT are working to develop an indoor synthetic apiary that acts as a controlled space where bees can live and thrive year-round.

Another startup on the front lines to save the bees is ApisProtect, an emerging company that presented at the AgTech Nexus 2017 Start-Up Hub in Dublin. This Irish company started by preeminent researchers, including CEO Dr. Fiona Edwards Murphy, uses the Internet of Things (IoT) to monitor honeybee colonies via real-time hive monitoring powered by satellite-enabled sensors that are retrofitted to existing beehives.

The company then applies proprietary big data and machine learning techniques to convert the raw data collected into valuable information and actionable insights for beekeepers. The technology is currently used to monitor over six million honeybees in hives across Europe and North America, and the company is making connections daily with departments of agriculture, beekeeping organizations, and food suppliers all over the world.

The company’s presentation at AgTech Nexus 2017 introduced it to the investors that enabled its latest announcement of financing, which was co-led by top-tier venture capital investors Finistere Ventures and Atlantic Bridge Capital, and included Radicle Growth, The Yield Lab, and Enterprise Ireland.

Since its successful funding, GAI News had the opportunity to sit down with company CEO Edwards Murphy to discuss the startup’s technology and the funding that will advance its work.

1. Your doctoral research in 2013 was in the application of sensors and networking in honeybee hives. How did this lead to the formation of ApisProtect?

During my Ph.D. I published my research regularly, and began receiving recognition for my work in this area through awards and published articles. After a broadcast on national airwaves, there was huge demand from beekeepers to get involved with my Ph.D. research. This was the first spark that lead me to think that IoT (Internet of Things) technology could have a major impact on commercial-scale beekeeping.

We have a really strong leadership team with a mix of engineering, science, beekeeping, and commercial backgrounds. We now have a team of seven and we look forward to growing the team with the help of this new investment.

2. It is estimated that the world is losing up to 50 percent of its honeybees every year due to disease, pests, and hive problems. How will your technology help rectify this?

For the last 20 to 30 years, bees have been facing problems that they never experienced before in history. Our technology is helping the beekeeper apply the knowledge that they already have, but in a much more effective and controlled manner. Our ApisMonitor units use IoT technology, including in-hive sensors and long-range wireless communication, to monitor the health of honeybees.

Using this sensor data together with big data and machine learning techniques, we can provide actionable insights and alerts to help beekeepers prevent losses and increase productivity in their colonies.

This will enable commercial beekeepers to reduce their colony losses. For example, in the U.S. in 2015-2016, colony losses of up to 38 percent were reported. With our science-based technology, we can reduce these losses and help beekeepers manage the health of their colonies. We are already seeing interesting data coming through from our hives based in California, Delaware, St Louis, and Arizona.

3. How is the first round of funding being used to advance your company’s work?

This investment will allow us to roll out our technology across North America, Europe, and South Africa, enabling us to monitor more climates, bee subspecies, and bee foraging areas.

It is busy year for the team, traveling to all our host sites to install the ApisMonitor units, but it has been fascinating to meet with our hosts in various states across the U.S. and see the common problems that commercial beekeepers experience, and how we will be able to help them.

We also are opening our first U.S. office at the Western Growers Association’s WG Center for Innovation and Technology in Salinas, California, and will be growing our Cork office to a team of 25 over the next three years.

In the second quarter of 2019, we will be launching our first commercially available ApisMonitor revision. We look forward to working with our investors to get this on the market for beekeepers to ensure the health of their colonies for next winter.

4. Finistere Ventures and Atlantic Bridge – your two lead co-investors – have called ApisProtect a disruptor in the industry with huge potential for its robust technology. How will their guidance and expertise be funneled into your business?

Our investment partners offer deep knowledge of the pollination services market, as well as the agriculture and IoT technology sectors. This investment will allow us to accelerate our expansion as we work to create an extensive global hive health database to power our machine learning insights. The aim is to help commercial pollinators and growers to optimize pollination.

Our investors have a strong track record of supporting companies through key stages of development and helping them commercialize their technology globally through their networks.

They also are keenly aware that there is a need for technologies to aid pollination in agriculture, and that the ApisProtect in-hive technology has massive potential in key markets like California. We look forward to learning and working closely with our investors to bring our product to market. 

# # #

DISCLAIMER: All views, data, opinions and declarations expressed are solely those of the author(s) and not of Global AgInvesting, GAI News, GAI Gazette, or parent company HighQuest Group.

– 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.

-Michelle Pelletier Marshall is managing editor for Global AgInvesting’s quarterly GAI Gazette magazine and a regular contributor to GAI News. She can be reached at mmarshall@globalaginvesting.com.