Cambridge-based agritech start-up Smartbell has hit its £200k Crowdcube target, with 139 investors at the time of going to press and still seven days of the campaign to run.
Smartbell was incorporated in 2016 with a mission to improve animal health, reduce carbon footprint and help farmers.
Founders Veena Adityan and Jose Chitty came up with the concept at Cambridge Judge Business School: they then built on these early ideas at Accelerate Cambridge before moving on to prototyping at Makespace.
Studies have shown that seven in 10 of cattle suffer from respiratory diseases and half of cases are never detected, leading to lifelong health problems for the animal and farm production underperformance.
There are nearly 1bn cattle globally. The total monitoring technologies market was worth $5.6bn in 2022 and is expected to hit around $23.35bn by 2032.
Smartbell’s real-time animal tracking and environmental monitoring technology elevates livestock health through 24/7 monitoring, AI, and precision technology, boosting profitability while minimising environmental impact.
Smartbell - now based at IdeaSpace near the Cam - has already designed a patented calf ear tag which uses 24/7 monitoring to highlight when an action is needed to check an animal. Its patented AI-powered lifetime monitoring solution uses a combination of sensors, cameras and environmental monitoring to provide a comprehensive assessment of an animal’s condition as part of its mission to create healthier, happier livestock for a more sustainable future.
Alerts are sent direct to the farmer’s phone, enabling rapid response and aiding quick recovery from disease. There are already 3,000 tags on animals over 30 farms across UK, Ireland and Germany: Smartbell is signing up distributors and onboarding international farms including in the US.
“I was originally cynical about the use of the data, but now we look at the app two or three times a day,” said David Smurthwaite, dairy manager at Mackie’s of Scotland, an early adopter farm. “The system is very easy to use and the tags are very user-friendly. Our antibiotic usage has gone down and the calves recover more quickly.”
The company offers hardware for purchase with a yearly data subscription plan, and is currently working with global distributors to sell its product globally in the course of 2024.
Smartbell has received £1.1m in previous funding with leading VC investors LCIF and Turquoise capital, with an additional £1.1m secured in non-dilutive funding.
The Crowdcube raise forms part of a wider round, in which the company had already secured £140,000 prior to the Crowdcube round: these funds have been reflected onto the progress bar.
Smartbell co-founder and CEO, Veena Adityan, says: “We are very excited to expand Smartbell into more farms and help more farms rearing calves.
“These funds will help us gear up production and sign up distributors so that we can reach our next milestone of 10,000 tags out there helping to rear healthier calves.”
The Crowdcube campaign can be found here.
