Just a month after it raised a US$7.7-million investment round, Waterloo Region agtech startup BinSentry has received another huge boost thanks to a distribution partnership with global agriculture giant Cargill.
Under the partnership, Cargill – which has customers in more than 125 countries – will become an exclusive distributor of BinSentry’s sensors, which accurately track levels in livestock feed bins.
“BinSentry is absolutely thrilled to be partnering with Cargill to lead a digital transformation in agriculture,” BinSentry CEO Randall Schwartzentruber told Communitech News today. “Cargill's recognition of BinSentry’s innovative technology as a market leader is a huge vote of confidence in our incredible team and their ability to develop solutions which solve real challenges in agriculture globally. Customers around the world will now have even greater access to the revolutionary tools which our existing customers have come to know and love.”
In a news release announcing the partnership today, Cargill said “hitting the side of a feed bin with a mallet, using load scales or installing vibration sensors to guesstimate feed levels is a thing of the past.” The company added that BinSentry’s technology makes feed-bin monitoring “safer and more efficient for animal producers and feed mills.”
BinSentry’s sensors use LiDAR, the same technology used in self-driving cars, to read feed levels in bins every four hours. The sensors, which are solar or battery powered, can be installed in 10 minutes or less with no bin modification needed. They are also self-cleaning and wipe dust away before each reading to ensure accuracy. Users can check the levels in their bins with a dashboard that can be used on any mobile device or computer.
“Integrating BinSentry sensors with our Cargill Nutrition Cloud Platform helps animal producers, feed mills and their customers get the right feed for specific animal groupings in their operations,” said Scott Ainslie, Cargill’s Regional Managing Director of Animal Nutrition, in today’s release. “This also opens up opportunities for truck route optimization and better production scheduling in feed mills.”
Because it uses low-power, long-range networks, BinSentry can monitor feed bins that are remotely located, even without internet connectivity. Feed mills can thus better plan delivery routes and ensure farmers have the right amount of feed when they need it. This translates into lower costs due to fewer ordering errors, reduction in late or unexpected orders, and increases safety by eliminating the need for producers or feed mill employees to climb into bins to check levels.
“BinSentry is proud to partner with Cargill to eliminate costly inefficiencies and enhance operational sustainability for those working hard to feed the world,” Schwartzentruber said. “Together, our relentless pursuit of agricultural innovation combined with Cargill’s feed expertise and extensive supply chain footprint will allow us to scale our solution quickly, helping producers and feed mill operators be more successful.”
