Kitchener’s Binsentry raises $10 million CAD Series A to take agtech sensors global
KITCHENER, CA - September 10, 2020
Kitchener-Waterloo startup BinSentry has developed an Internet of Things (IoT) solution that enables feed mills and livestock producers to monitor on-farm inventory.
In order to further develop its product and take the solution global, BinSentry recently closed a $10 million CAD ($7.7 million USD) Series A round led by United States-based food and agriculture-focused investment firm Lewis & Clark AgriFood.
“Feed bin monitoring is currently antiquated with significant opportunity to improve efficiency.”
The round also included BDC Capital’s Industrial Innovation Venture Fund, a $250 million commitment launched last year to invest in agriculture, foodtech, resource extraction, and advanced manufacturing. Jonathan Goodkey, principal at the BDC fund, is joining BinSentry’s board of directors as part of the deal.
The Series A capital brings BinSentry’s total venture funding to date to more than $12 million CAD, following a $2.1 million ($1.6 million USD) seed round in 2018. Five investors, including Kitchener-Waterloo’s Garage Capital and Chilligo Investments, participated in the seed round through a series of SAFEs. Each of those investors saw their SAFEs converted and made follow-on investments as part of the Series A, according to BinSentry CEO Randall Schwartzentruber.
BinSentry is co-founded and led by Schwartzentruber and CTO Nathan Hoel. It has developed an IoT sensor that helps farmers, and the feed producers that supply them, track feed bin inventory. The startup claims that its small sensors dramatically increase operational efficiencies for feed producers that deliver their product to farms.
“BinSentry has been founded to essentially replace the standard for feed bin monitoring across the industry,” Schwartzentruber told BetaKit in a recent interview.
“BinSentry sort of flips the industry upside down and begins to provide that information and projections around when feed bins are going to be empty, which really, for the first time ever enables feed mills to begin to operate proactively as opposed to reactively,” the CEO added.
Feed bins are structures found on farms that store a variety of livestock feeds. That feed is supplied and transported by producers like CP Group and Cargill. In the not-so-distant past, farmers would monitor bin inventory by banging a rubber mallet on the side. They would then place orders with producers for refills.
Over the last number of years, tech-based products have become increasingly popular in the AgTech, and feed bin, industry as companies look to create more efficient food supply chains. BinSentry sees its sensors as the latest innovative solution to help feed producers personally monitor the bins, collect up-to-date information, and operate proactively.
“We find ourselves in a very interesting position in that increasing efficiencies in agriculture becomes all the more important when you are facing the type of crisis that COVID-19 has sort of thrust upon industry worldwide,” Schwartzentruber said.
“Even when things like this happen, people still need to continue to eat,” the CEO said, noting the potential for increased demand for BinSentry’s tech due to the pandemic. “The sustainability of our food supply system becomes all the more important when things like this are going on. One of the things that BinSentry helps our customers to do is operate more efficiently, which enables them to service [more] bins with a smaller staff.”