StrongBó, an Irish agritech startup, has announced that it has closed a €750,000 seed funding round to enable the company to commercialise its automatic animal weighing device, a hardware-enabled software solution, poised to revolutionise the beef production sector.

The investment was led by Gallagher, a global leader in animal management solutions, based in New Zealand. Other investors in the round include; Enterprise Ireland via the High Potential Startup (HPSU) programme, the 519 Growth Fund and the Grand River Agricultural Society (GRAS), both based in Canada.

StrongBó Agritech co-founders Micheál McInerney and Marty Metzger, with a StrongBó automatic animal weighing device. Image: StrongBó Agritech.

Provide the farmer with a business intelligence platform

StrongBó’s cutting-edge hardware automatically collects frequent animal weights, which are then analysed to provide the farmer with a business intelligence platform and decision support tool.

This data is then used by the farmer and their advisers to make smarter decisions about their livestock on a daily basis, but also allows them to plan with greater certainty into the future.

Micheál McInerney, co-founder and CEO, StrongBó, said: “We are delighted to secure this funding round with such a significant mix of globally recognised industry players and seasoned investors like Enterprise Ireland.

"Our latest innovation allows farmers to gain new insights into how their animals are actually progressing. StrongBó provides average daily gains so farmers can see how much the animals are growing, and how much weight they're putting on. You can’t manage what you don’t measure.”

Sarah Adams, general manager of strategy and new ventures for Gallagher Animal Management, believes the partnership reflects Gallagher’s commitment to addressing some of the core pain points farmers face, while also enabling innovative technology to come through.

'Farm more efficiently and profitably'

She said: “Now more than ever, farmers are looking for technologies that enable them to farm more efficiently and profitably. Being able to regularly weigh livestock while in the paddock can mean real savings in labour output and potentially down the track it may enable them to track the more feed efficient animals and lower greenhouse gas emitters.

"Remote weighing also keeps cows on-feed 24/7, allowing them to maximise weight gain, therefore reducing the need and stress from traipsing up to the yard for weighing.

“We had been investigating adding remote weighing into our suite of animal management offerings for a while. It’s always been our preference to scan the market for potential partners first before starting the development process from scratch and the team at StrongBó were the ideal fit for this.”

McInerney designed StrongBó’s hardware in Ireland to address concerns that the digital revolution had in some ways left the beef production sector behind. Despite sweeping advancements in farm automation with systems that can control feed input, few advancements have developed to enhance what farmers know about the animals involved.

Together with co-founder Ivan Wahlrab, StrongBó has created a software architecture that utilises big data and real-time animal performance monitoring in order to modernise livestock management and sustainability practices.

StrongBó is based at NovaUCD after recently securing funding from the European Space Agency (ESA) as a part of the ESA BIC Ireland programme.

Expanded internationally

Since designing and testing the device on Irish farms, StrongBó has expanded internationally with an initial focus on the Canadian market. It was there that Marty Metzger, of Metzger Veterinary Services, joined the core team as an additional co-founder. StrongBó now operates a subsidiary in Hamilton, Ontario.

Co-founder and CTO Wahlrab says the team is excited to partner with Gallagher not least because it gives them a heightened opportunity to introduce the benefits of remote weighing into New Zealand’s pasture-based farming systems.

He said: “We’re really proud to be aligning with Gallagher in this way, it’s a partnership that has already been hugely beneficial for us as we’ve gained enormous insight into the global agribusiness sector and what is involved in taking an innovative, technology-driven idea into the prototype phase, and ultimately out to the wider market.”

StrongBó also worked closely with the ifac food and agribusiness advisory team to complete this round of funding.

Micheál McInerney, CEO, StrongBó, can be contacted at: micheal@strongbo.ie.