Can you tell us more about PlantOS and what inspired you to start the business?

PlantOS is a digital precision agriculture company which seeks to empower farmers with data driven insights that fuel success through our customizable IoT hardware connected to and platform-powered by Google Cloud. I started PlantOS as a project after being aware of the plight of farmers trying to increase yield while being ravaged by climate change. In 2016 we started the business supported by our group of global open source volunteers which turned our shared vision into a reality. You want to assist indoor farmers by optimizing yield and being more efficient.

How will this contribute to a better world?

We found that 49% of indoor farms are not profitable primarily due to inefficient labour production, inaccurate forecasts and pest infestations. Our IoT technology and platform allows indoor farmers to reduce labour significantly through efficient task management across value chains, detecting pests in advance to reduce operational risks and improving yield predictability through machine learning applications hosted on our platform. We believe that by enabling indoor farmers to be profitable, communities are empowered to source quality produce locally.

What were the challenges that your startup has faced and how were you able to overcome these challenges?

It was tough when we started because all of us were managing our day jobs while working on building prototypes. Furthermore we bootstrapped our development so we can validate it with indoor farmers. Lastly we had to manage our global team with diverse
cultures and work ethics. We found It valuable to build a team culture centered on our vision to help farmers. This enabled us to attract talent with a strong conviction and work ethic not focused on selfish needs like fame or money. We were blessed to receive support from Brinc and Tamkeen to enable us to scale and grow our business effectively.

What is your vision for indoor farming in the next few years?

Our vision in the next few years for indoor farmers is to have fully automated indoor farms enabled from production to distribution with traceability for stakeholders across the value chain through blockchain technology integrated into our gamified social platform. Farming should be fun and engaging like playing FarmVille!

What advice can you give to agritech entrepreneurs?

Having a customer centric mindset early as opposed to creating the perfect solution before validation. We have learned and grown so much as a team with this mindset because there will be new valuable challenges to resolve that wasn’t discovered before. Apart from that
do reach out to your technology partners early for support such as cloud credits and architecture planning to manage your operational costs effectively early.

For more information:
www.plant-os.com