Connecterra, an Amsterdam based startup has won the 2015 startup of the year award by a jury comprising of senior executives from Andreessen Horowitz, Intel Capital and Audi.
Connecterra believes the dairy service will help farmers increase productivity per animal by up to 20% or more. This is the first such service available to dairy farmers which focuses on generating meaning from data and providing farmers with specific, actionable insights versus ‘more data’.
Learning cow’s behaviour
Connecterra has developed a sensor that measures the activity of a cow in 3D space and by leveraging its deep learning algorithms can detect various behaviours such as walking, eating, ruminating etc. This information is then modeled to provide farmers with health insights which help them reduce labor input and improve animal health resulting in higher productivity from each cow. The approach also enables the platform to learn new behaviours of dairy cows and provide a continual value stream of insights to farmers.
Technology breakthrough
In addition to providing farmers with insights, their platform also enables veterinarians to observe herd data and provide suggestions to farmers on improving farm practices. This helps democratise farmer knowledge to those that need it most and especially in developing countries. Industry experts are hailing this product and technology as a breakthrough for an industry that has largely been lagging in its adoption of new technology innovations. According to Remco Schrijver, CEO of VetEffect, a Dairy Advisory consultancy: “A product like Connecterra can help farm profitability as it provides targeted advice to the farmer, not just data”. Farmers are anxious to try the product and are awaiting shipment of the beta sensors: “This product is critical to the success of my farm’s productivity”, said Shehryar Hamid, CEO of Infinita Dairies.
A unique platform
Connecterra is currently raising its first round of capital of $2.1M and expects to make the service commercially available in the first half of 2016 after extensive field trials which are currently being conducted in the Netherlands. The technology behind Connecterra is a blend of deep learning, Bayesian reasoning done at cloud scale. This innovative approach combined with sensors is unique and visionary. According to the founder, Yasir Khokhar “This is the start of what we believe is the future of technology. By combining sensors, machine learning and cloud scale, we have created a unique platform that we will apply to multiple industries to help solve real world challenges.”
Understand everything on earth
Connecterra was co-founded by Yasir Khokhar and Saad Ansari in 2014 and is based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Connecterra’s mission is to connect the analog to understand everything on earth. We do this by building sensors for ‘offline’ real world objects and using our machine learning platform to learn behaviours. The insights we develop solve problems that matter.
