Combating weeds in a sustainable way is more urgent than ever. Global warming is supercharging their growth as they compete with crops for nutrients, and every drop of chemical sprayed comes with an environmental cost.
Now startups like Precision AI are trying a new approach, including an AI-enabled crop-spraying drone that reduces chemical use by up to 90%.
The trajectory of Precision AI starts with Founder and CEO, Daniel McCann, a three-time start-up founder with over 25 years in technology within diverse industries. In an effort to clean out his garage by auto-listing on Ebay with his own AI, Dan realized how efficient the model could be for identifying plants. In 2017, this discovery along with time spent on family farms planted the seed that became artificially intelligent drones for fully autonomous farming.
Since then Precision AI has raised a record breaking $20 million seed round in 2021, hired over 25 full time employees globally, and have testing facilities in 2 provinces and 3 states.
“There’s almost a limitless well of things that you can do when you use artificial intelligence that can see down to the per-plant level that you just can’t do without it. We see expanding this core technology into all of these other areas that can have a material impact on multiple parts of the plant-protein ecosystem.”
– Daniel McCann, CEO
Sources: YouTube; Website