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Vancouver’s Semios raises $8 million funding for pest control platform

Vancouver’s Semios, a provider of agricultural precision pest management technology, has closed an $8 million financing round, led by a group of private investors from the Agtech community, with an assist from Haywood Securities.

Founded in 2010, Semios claims to have seen over 200% annual growth for its patented Semios platform, which monitors the quantity of pests, along with flight strength, wind patterns and temperature to optimize pheromone deployment in the field, all through a single interface that a farmer can easily control.

Brookfield Asset Management Managing Partner Reid Carter, who was recently appointed to the Semios board as a representative of the funding group said, “Semios continues to demonstrate an exceptional level of innovation and functionality in its precision farming platform and is now at a stage where more resources will help meet the exponential growth in demand for operational deployment.”

Semios plans to use the funds to expand sales, services and R&D efforts.

Demand for the Semios pest control platform is partly driven by the recent decline in the bee population and other beneficial insect species, owing to which farmers and regulatory agencies are increasingly looking to non-toxic and specifies-specific pheromone products and insecticide alternatives.

“We are at a pivotal point in the company’s growth with more than 50,000 sensors deployed and over 10,000 acres under management,” said Semios Founder and CEO Michael Gilbert. “Adoption of our platform is accelerating and our growers are asking for more features and services. With this new level of investor expertise and confidence, we’ll be able to expand the platform and accelerate the growth of our business.”

Last month, Semios received approvals from both the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the California Department of Pest Regulation (DPR) for their aerosol pheromone biopesticide products aimed at disrupting the mating habits of the Navel Orangeworm.

The Semios platform offers farmers real-time remote access to monitoring field conditions on an acre-by-acre basis, helping to manage deployment of pheromones, frost prevention and optimization of irrigation schedules, reducing risk, protecting crops and increasing crop profitability.

Semios will continue adding new services, including novel aerosol pheromone formulas targeting orchard and vineyard pests, along with platform enhancements including improved big data analytics to predict the risk of frost inversions, diseases and non-optimized irrigation.

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