Teralytic Raises Seed Round to Bring Predictive Analytics to Farming and Improve Soil Health

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / August 29, 2017 / Teralytic has raised $2.25 million to bring its soil sensors and machine learning analytics to farmers. Teralytic’s solution helps farmers produce more food with fewer resources by improving their field’s soil health. 01 Ventures led the investment in Teralytic.

Soil testing is a manual, time-intensive process that takes days or weeks to collect, diagnose and respond to conditions in the field. With Teralytic’s sensors distributed around a farm constantly checking and reporting on the conditions of its soil quality 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, farmers no longer need to spend as much time manually testing soils and waiting for test results. Farmers are increasing their adoption of technology to help around the farm given the labor shortages impacting the agriculture industry and Teralytic has been helping farmers automate their soil sampling.

Teralytic’s sensors constantly gather data about soil quality, such as its temperature, moisture, pH and fertility levels, as well as in-field micro-climate data. Each sensor accurately measures more than 20 different data points, giving farmers real-time visibility into the condition of their soils. “By collecting and analyzing data in real-time, farms are less likely to over- or under-fertilize or mishandle watering programs throughout the growing season,” said Meagan Hynes, Ph.D., Teralytic’s VP of Soil Science. “I’m excited about the potential to use data to help improve soil health.”

Combined with machine learning and predictive analytics, the software platform helps farmers understand where problems may appear in their soils, enabling them to take proactive steps to prevent them from happening. Farmers, governments and land banks all use the soil quality data to quantify soil fertility and improve the value of their crops and land as well as cut input costs. By preventing over fertilization, farmers can also reduce costs and environmental impacts.

Low-cost innovations in the Internet of Things space are also helping bring new ways of collecting data to the farm. “Materials science innovations and the continual advancement of microfabrication techniques have blown the doors open to produce cutting-edge sensor tech at scale,” said Ryan Mansergh, Ph.D., Teralytic’s VP of R&D. “These sensors–coupled with AI, machine learning, and cloud technologies–have finally made it possible to deliver on the promise of precision agriculture–and the timing couldn’t be better, as we need to increase crop yields with fewer inputs if we hope to continue feeding the world’s growing population.”

Combining sensor data with machine learning and predictive analytics allows farmers to make quicker decisions about what needs modifications in the field before it’s too late, reducing irrigation where sensors can tell that conditions are moist enough, for example, or applying a soil amendment mid-season to correct for deficiencies. “Drone and camera-based technologies often catch problems in the field once visible on the plant, but at Teralytic, we try to catch these problems before they happen by diagnosing the soils,” said Steven Ridder, Founder and CEO of Teralytic.

For more information, contact Steven Ridder at steve@teralytic.com or call (646) 883-9181.

SOURCE: Teralytic

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