Milk quality and dairy data company SomaDetect has completed a $2 million seed funding round, which it plans to use to for a data collection expansion across North America to improve its sensor technology and learning algorithms for dairy farm management.
The seed funding round includes investments from New Brunswick Innovation Foundation (NBIF), the Western New York Impact Investment Fund (WNYIIF), and New York Ventures, and follows previous seed investments from Cavallo Ventures, Dairy Farmers of America, Builders VC, and iGan Partners.
Founded in 2016, SomaDetect works to provide dairy farmers and industry partners across North America with actionable data to help manage their operations, including several aspects of milk quality and herd health.
The Canadian tech firm has developed an in-line sensor that, combined with deep learning algorithm and visualisation software, measures critical indicators of quality and health (fat, protein, somatic cell counts, and progesterone) from every cow at every milking.
“Our company is growing and advancing thanks to their support, and strong support from the dairy industry,” said Bethany Deshpande, CEO of SomaDetect. “Their investment will help build and grow our company as we expand to collect thousands of data points from farms in North America. It will help us build algorithms that matter for dairy farmers.”
“For generations, dairy farming has been an important and integral business in all eight counties of Western New York and our dairy farmers have been struggling,” added Thomas P. Quinn, chief executive officer of WNYIIF. “SomaDetect’s ground-breaking technology can provide dairy farmers with crucial data to increase productivity for the benefit of farmers today and for years to come.”
Last year, the company launched its first sensor prototype version which has been installed in 12 pilot farms in Ontario, New York State, and Atlantic Canada with the goal of collecting data and building algorithms.
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