February 20, 2020

By Lynda Kiernan

Boston-based Morningside Group has led a $75 million funding round for Semios, the leading data-driven, precision farming platform for permanent crops.

Founded in Vancouver in 2010, Semios offers real-time crop data and pest management tools for nut, tree fruit, and vine crop growers. With more than 150,000 acres of permanent crops across 500 farms in the U.S. under management, Semios leverages a proprietary in-orchard IoT wireless network that monitors climate, soil moisture, and insect and disease activity with machine learning and big data analytic capabilities to help farmers manage insect pests, disease, frost, and irrigation demands. Its patented mesh network allows the company to install remote-controlled pheromone dispensers, camera traps for pests, soil moisture sensors, and leaf wetness devices for total coverage of every orchard block. 

“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 Dr. Michael Gilbert, founder and CEO, Semios. “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.”

As Semios gathers sensory data on every acre in real time, its cloud-based analytics platform processes 350 million data points gathered daily from more than one million IoT sensors in the field, measuring in-canopy microclimate, soil, and plant health every 10 minutes. This gathered data feeds established, proprietary models that provide guidance in relation to the myriad challenges faced by permanent crop farmers.

This round brings Semios’ total funding to-date to $115 million, and is by far the largest secured to this point. In 2016 the company raised $8 million in equity funding backed by a consortium of private equity agtech investors led by Reid Carter, who had been head of Brookfield Asset Management’s timberland investment organization, and who at the time, had recently been appointed a seat on the Semios Board. 

Since 2015, Semios’ has seen its revenue double year-on-year by being the most experienced, and most accurate wireless network platform in the permanent crop industry.

“Capitalizing companies that are solving important and complex problems with data is an area of focus of our investment team,” said Mick Sawka, investment manager at Morningside Group.

The company plans to use the funds to accelerate its R&D initiatives and partnerships, and for acquisitions to use in-field data to help permanent crop growers around the world reduce chemical inputs, improve water management, and increase crop quality and yields.

“Semios’ proven track record growing revenues through innovation is exemplary,” said Sawka. “Their work has made farming more environmentally sustainable, more productive and therefore enhanced the security of our food chain.”

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