April 3, 2023

By Michelle Pelletier Marshall, Global AgInvesting Media

In this segment of our “Three Questions With…”, which introduces agtech companies to our audience, GAI News reached out to Beewise Technologies, a company that has produced the world’s first robotic beehive – the solar-powered BeeHome. Founded in 2018 by Saar Safra, Hallel Schreier, Eliya Radzyner, Yossi Sorin, and Boaz Petersil, the Israeli startup has raised $120 million to-date.

The BeeHome houses 24 colonies in a climate and humidity-controlled environment that includes pest control measures, autonomous swarm prevention, automated harvesting, and real-time problem alerts via an app and video monitoring. Beewise noted that last year these robotic hives saved more than $160 million for the growers who used them.

Our three questions got more details on the up-and-coming company:

1). Tell us about your company.

By applying 21st century technology to an industry that has not experienced major technological changes in over 150 years, and through the latest advancements in robotics, computer vision, and artificial intelligence, we are solving the challenges of bees today – at scale. 

Our solution is built to save bees so we can safeguard the global food supply. The increasing loss of bee colonies around the world poses a threat to pollinators, beekeepers, and to approximately 75 percent of pollination-dependent crops that humans consume. At Beewise, our business model helps us carry out our mission: for every dollar we make, we save at least two bees. 

Our vision is to:

Save bees through technology.

We redesigned the beehive, a “technology” that has not changed much since the invention of the traditional beehive approximately 170 years ago, and the invention of the centrifuge honey extractor approximately 150 years ago. 

We created a beehive that addresses the time, distance, and skilled labor challenges facing beekeepers with computer vision, AI, and precision robotics. Now, bees are not only constantly monitored, with AI identifying their needs, but also can be treated remotely in real time via precision robotics.

Improve outcomes through automation.

Beekeepers typically have two main revenue streams: pollination services they provide to growers, and sales of the honey their bees produce.

We provide commercial beekeepers with a technology-enabled platform, so together with their personal expertise and know-how, they are equipped with advanced tools to help their bees survive, thrive, and stay stronger. 

We help growers and beekeepers reduce operational costs. 

With our solution, beekeepers increase their efficiency for optimized pollination and improved honey production. Healthier bees lead to better unit economics for beekeepers, which ultimately means more beekeepers in business, protecting more bees.  

Improve pollination through healthier hives.

Typically, pollination is positively correlated with a crop’s yield that season. Healthier hives lead to improved pollination, which subsequently increases crop yield for growers. 

Increased crop yield helps growers maximize land use, which in turn improves food supply. This means more food becomes accessible at better prices to more people around the world. 

2). Tell us about your technology and what changes it will bring about.

Beewise’s BeeHome is the only beehive equipped with computer vision, AI, and precision robotics. We consider the bee our main customer, and completely redesigned the beehive using the latest technology to give bees the environment they need in which to naturally operate. Because there are so many interconnected threats facing bees, rather than try to solve any specific problem, we have developed a solution that changes how beekeeping can be performed – with advanced hardware for bees in the field and software for beekeepers and growers to manage operations from their desk or mobile phone. Through remote beekeeping, we can save bees on a large scale. 

The BeeHome hardware platform includes frame inspection, robot, honey extractor, moving frames, feeding, and pest treatment, while the software platform includes:

— Real-time images and data for every frame in the hive, down to the cell level.

— Comprehensive data monitoring, insights, and alerts across all hives.  

— Location and mapping capabilities for tracking and planning.

BeeHome combines computer vision, AI, and precision robotics to automatically and autonomously handle most issues associated with supporting colonies. However, if problems do arise, alerts are sent to beekeepers in real-time, so they can respond accordingly.

The hive can deal with many potential scenarios autonomously such as thermo-regulation; autonomous swarm prevention, which is prevented by early detection of a swarm build-up and adjusting conditions in the bees’ habitat according to their needs; automated harvesting, where the beekeeper receives an alert to collect the honey when the frames are full of it; and pest control, where the hive is constantly monitored, and non-chemical treatments are applied where needed in real-time.  

Overall, the BeeHome provides beekeepers a technological solution that improves pollination and increases honey yields, reduces operational costs and time in the field, drives efficiency to improve margins, and results in less colony collapse.

3). Tell us why the GAI investment and agribusiness audience should be interested.

Pollinators are vital to life on our planet. Bees have thrived for more than 130 million years, ensuring food security and nutrition, and maintaining biodiversity and vibrant ecosystems for plants, animals, and humans.

Today, pollinators are essential to the production of many of the micronutrient-rich fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and oils we eat. Close to 75 percent of the world’s crops that produce fruits and seeds for human consumption depend, at least in part, on pollinators for sustained production, yield, and quality.

The serious decline in populations of pollinators is likely to impact the production and costs of vitamin-rich crops. This decline could lead to increasingly unbalanced diets and health problems, such as malnutrition and non-communicable diseases.

The Beewise solution allows beekeepers to know what their hives need and provide the right solution when it’s needed, without having to physically visit the hive. 

We solve the challenges facing beekeepers today and enable them to help bees more effectively. 

– Michelle Pelletier Marshall is contributing editor and author for HighQuest Partners’ GAI News and Unconventional Ag, and managing editor for its WIA Today blog. Additionally, she is the company’s Senior PR/Media Manager. She can be reached at marshall@highquestpartners.com.

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