USA —TeleSense, an agritech startup working to provide solutions to improve food safety and grain storage, has raised US$10.2 million in a Series B funding round led by Finistere Ventures, an agriculture and food investment pioneer.
New investors in the start-up included Fulcrum Global Capital, UPL, Artesian Venture Partners, and Mindset Ventures.
Existing shareholders including Rabobank’s Food & Agri Innovation Fund also joined the round.
“Having led both the Series A and Series B investments, we strongly believe that TeleSense is a prime visionary in redefining how grain is stored, handled and traded,” Spencer Maughan, co-founder and partner, Finistere Ventures.
A grain monitoring pioneer, TeleSense brings the advances of artificial intelligence and predictive analytics to the grain industry.
Utilizing IoT, real-time environmental monitoring, and cloud-based AI technology, TeleSense provides grain managers with insights about their stored grain, so that they can make storage decisions easily, quickly and accurately.
The company’s sensors and app work together to continuously monitor grain and automatically send issue alerts to users, mitigating spoilage, infestation and grain quality degradation.
TeleSense also retrofits traditional temperature cable systems to integrate them with its fully wireless software ecosystem.
Ultimately, TeleSense is creating a digital global grain supply chain that uses data to combat grain spoilage — making the supply chain more sustainable and saving companies billions of dollars in lost grain along the way.
“The ability to know real-time storage conditions, accurately predict future grain quality and optimize merchandising timing delivers higher profits. We are dedicated to bringing the power of data to the grain industry.”
Naeem Zafar – co-founder and CEO of Telesense
The agritech startup recently established offices in Australia and Europe, to focus on strengthening its global sales channel, speeding production and further building out its data science team to maintain its position as an artificial intelligence (AI) leader in the grain industry.
In addition to new funding Telesense added two new board members, Soren Wolck Schroder, former chief executive officer (CEO) of Bunge, and Mark Palmquist, CEO of United Malt and former CEO of GrainCorp.
Schroder and Palmquist will actively support the company’s growth plan by sharing their extensive expertise and making connections throughout their global grain networks.
“Having spent more than 30 years in the grain industry, I am very impressed by TeleSense’s use of smart analytics and prescriptive actions to not only preserve quality, but also to optimize merchandising decisions for maximum profitability,” Schroder said.
“The complexities of the food supply chain continue to evolve, and the grain industry needs to keep pace,” said Naeem Zafar, co-founder and CEO of Telesense.
“The ability to know real-time storage conditions, accurately predict future grain quality and optimize merchandising timing delivers higher profits. We are dedicated to bringing the power of data to the grain industry.”
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