WA agri-tech start up Xsights secures backing of Silicon Valley investment firm SVG Ventures
A WA start up trialling a unique electronic ear tag designed to improve livestock welfare has secured the backing of a major Silicon Valley agri-tech investment firm.
Fremantle-based company Xsights has developed a monitoring device that provides real-time data via Bluetooth on an animal’s temperature, movements, location and surrounding humidity.
It has been trialling the devices for the past four months at Craig Mostyn Group’s Gingin piggery as part of a three-year, $1.2 million study.
In December, Xsights won a major prize at the WA Innovator of the Year awards, attracting the attention of US investment, technology and advisory firm SVG Ventures.
After lodging an application, the company beat hundreds of other hopefuls from the Australia Pacific region to be the only WA start up chosen to take part in SVG’s inaugural THRIVE APAC Accelerator program in California.
Xsights chief executive and electronic engineer Steve Wildisen, who travelled to the US this month to take part in the 12-week program, said it was a “huge” opportunity.
“The program is about casing start ups and helping them get ready for scale,” he told Countryman.
“A big part of the trip is meeting affiliate programs including the American Pork Association and the Canadian Pork Association, so we’re pretty excited by those opportunities.”
The accelerator program includes some of the most innovative agrifood tech startups from Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia.
Xsights also took part in the World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit in San Francisco on March 14-15, where Mr Wildisen pitched the product to some of the world’s biggest livestock producers and investors.
“Getting in front of American investors is especially exciting given how forward-thinking they can be and how diverse their investment practices are,” he said.
“It can be challenging in Australia, where much of the investment focus is on the resources industry and there is a reluctance or an inability to see the potential in Australian-developed technology.
“Western Australians, particularly, love a hole being dug in the ground. They’ll take that risk on investing into a mining opportunity without looking left or right at other opportunities.”
Mr Wildisen said the WA trials — involving Xsights, Food Agility CRC, Pork Innovation WA, Curtin University and the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development — were already yielding “really positive” results.
One thousand pigs at a time are fitted with the devices from four weeks of age until they are processed, with the goal of unlocking key data to deliver and document world class pig health and provenance.
Trials will soon begin on cattle and sheep in Denmark and Gingin, with plans to eventually expand into US and Canadian markets when the devices are commercially available.
“The great thing about our device is that it will work on all animals on standard NLIS (National Livestock Identification System) tags,” Mr Wildisen said.
“It’s a different journey, but it is using exactly the same equipment.”
The company hopes to use the trials to develop an app-based tool for livestock producers to easily monitor animal health, allowing for earlier intervention to enhance welfare, productivity and profitability.
And by individually tracking livestock, Mr Wildisen said potential outbreaks of imported diseases — such as foot-and-mouth or lumpy skin disease — could be eliminated by isolating individuals without having to resort to “broader measures”.
“If a biosecurity breakout happens in Australian farming, it’s an $80 billion threat to our economy, and by having these sort of tech solutions, we can keep it safe,” he said.
Xsights is now finalising its first round of seed investment and has secured half of its $4m target.
Mr Wildisen said the technology had the potential to “change livestock farming practices around the world” and help consumers make more informed decisions.
“There is an enormous demand for individualised data on the raising of livestock from across the board,” he said.
“Whether that’s from the livestock producer who is looking to produce the healthiest and best-cared-for animal, government regulators, or the consumer, the journey an animal takes from paddock to plate is increasingly important.
“The dairy industry already uses (traditional) Internet of Things devices to detect fertility and those sort of things; however, because they’re such expensive items to use, they tend to only do part of the herd.
“So you don’t actually have true provenance lines, you don’t have true ESG (environmental, social and governance) ratings for each animal, or the ability to collect the data of individual animals.
“You’re just looking at herd data and then scaling it based on assumptions, whereas we actually look at the individual animal for the life of the animal.
“Our device keeps a log of every time it eats, every time it drinks, everytime it sleeps, how much movement it’s doing during the course of the day … that data is invaluable and will continue to pay dividends to farmers and industry.”
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