Australia, Queensland
Australian CSF Offer
Agriculture
Key Investment Highlights
- Large-Scale Digitisation & Insights: The first Australian deal to digitise over 1,000 hives, collecting data and industry insights for over a year.
- Australian BeeTech Challenge Winner 2022: Recognised by commercial beekeepers at AgriFutures and the Australian Honey Bee Industry Council for introducing easy-to-adopt technologies that offer immediate results for commercial beekeepers.
- National Farm Data Code Certification: BeeSTAR is the first in the industry to earn this certification, affirming our commitment to data protection.
- Selected for the Evoke AG24 Exhibition: Shortlisted as one of the most anticipated AgTech companies to watch in Australia.
- Impressive Results: BeeSTAR enables 30-50% in time savings through our innovative traffic light monitoring system.
- Global Trials: BeeSTAR is operating across Australia and testing in the US, with plans to expand into Turkey, Europe, and Asia by early 2025.
- Huge untapped opportunity: The Australian honey bee industry consists of more than 1,800 registered commercial beekeepers who own over 600,000 beehives. In addition to this, there are an additional 45,000 hobbyist beekeepers we plan to capture with our new BeeSTAR mini product.
The Problem
Honey bees are the most widespread pollinator that Australia’s food production systems are reliant upon - pollinating up to 70% of the crop species that feed the world.
However, bee populations are under threat. Habitat loss, intensive farming practices, pests and diseases are driving a decline in the number and diversity of bees.
We need bees for food security.
With rising costs and limited resources, the Beekeeping and bee pollination industries are struggling to meet the growing demand for pollination services. A demand that supports two-thirds of our food supply here in Australia and globally. According to Hort Innovation, Australia alone needs an additional 300,000 hives - a gap that current practices struggle to fill in the next 5 years.
Our Solution
Beekeeping is an ageing industry with limited technological progression since its modernisation in the 20th century.
BeeSTAR's innovation lies in our ‘STAR’ (Smart, Telemetric, Analytics & Remote) technology that revolutionises beekeeping & pollination industry.
Beekeepers can now remotely monitor hive health with less physical & invasive hive inspection, reducing inspection time by over 30~50%. Meaning beekeepers can manage more hives without additional labour or resources. Our system enables targeted resource allocation to hives needing attention and provides authentication for premium honey production.
Our comprehensive solution delivers:
- Real-Time Remote Monitoring with instant health status updates.
- Transparent Pollination data providing trustful and visual hive health for better yield.
- Automated Hive Movement Log reducing administrative burden.
- Biosecurity Track Record through location tracking and Geo-Fence setting.
- Provenance Honey Authentication for premium honey production.
Business Model
Currently, BeeSTAR is being deployed across 6 Commercial clients (1,512 hives), 2 Educational Institutions (MQ University, Winsonton High School in Toowoomba) and 2 Government Organisations (Agriculture Victoria, PIRSA South Australia) with aggressive growth plans in place to deploy 10,000 BeeSTAR Units by August 2025.
Our revenue strategy is built around the BeeSTAR product:
- We offer Hardware as a Service (HaaS) for commercial beekeepers, reducing their costs by over 30-50%. Our HaaS service is core to the BeeSTAR business and operates on a yearly subscription of $100 per hive. (ex GST)
- We're developing a Pollination Matching Platform that connects growers with data-proven health hives powered by BeeSTAR Technology.
And coming soon: - We're expanding our reach with BeeSTAR Mini, designed for recreational beekeepers with integrated AI and community networking features.
- We will also be launching a Global Honey Marketplace Platform next year for BeeSTAR users to facilitate international honey sales.
The Industry
The Australian honey bee industry consists of more than 48,983 registered beekeepers who own a total of around 630,490 hives, making Australia one of the top ten honey-producing countries in the world.
A large amount of honey produced in Australia is exported to various countries overseas in both bulk and retail shipments. Other honeybee-related products and services include beeswax production, queen bees and packaged bee sales, pollen, propolis, and paid pollination services.
According to the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, the honey bee industry is critical to Australia’s agriculture. Bees produce honey and wax as well as pollinate crops. The industry is worth more than $14 billion annually. (Honey bees - DAFF)
Competitive Advantage
BeeSTAR stands apart in the agricultural technology sector by serving a diverse market that includes commercial beekeepers, crop growers, corporate farms, food manufacturers, compliance agencies, and state governments.
Our approach and competitive edge are backed by researchers from academic journals, industry statistics, and AgriFutures and Hort Innovation's strategic R&D plans.
Key Differentiators:
- Precision: Specially designed for commercial apiary and pollination management, with accurate monitoring for large-scale operations.
- Durability: BeeSTAR sensors are highly robust, withstanding harsh agricultural environments and lasting over three years on a single battery.
- Usability: Intuitive traffic light indicators show essential information at a glance, reducing connectivity costs.
- Effective Data Usage: Each hive’s health is individually monitored, avoiding generalised data and providing beekeepers with meaningful insights for each hive.
From inside the hive, BeeSTAR gives keepers accurate insights into the health and conditions of the hive and bees anywhere at any time. This means that operators can save time and resources knowing their hive health is being accurately monitored.
Global connectivity:
We are forming a strategic partnership with Crop Pollination Association Australia and have secured agreements with our core technology supplier, offering global connectivity access for the exponential international expansion of BeeSTAR.
World-first data & insights:
Our platform will support ESG compliance, insurable livestock valuation, government-required traceability & transparency, and boost agricultural productivity through vital pollination & hive health insights.
Achievements and Market Presence
1,106 hives monitored in Australia.
Our progress is marked by significant milestones. We are receiving data from a total of 756 sensors across five states in Australia. Of these, 720 sensors have been collecting data since November last year.
We have just launched an additional 340 sensors, bringing us to a total of 1,106 hives under real-time monitoring, marking it as the largest-scale operation of this kind.
Four hives are being monitored in the US.
Additionally, four beehive sensors are operating in Arizona, USA.
We've become the first in our industry to receive National Farm Data Code Certification. We were recognised among the top four anticipated AgTech companies at Evoke AG24 and won the BeeTech Challenge at the Australian Bee Congress.
Case Study
Hear from our beekeeper, Paul Valkenburg.
Last year, while managing 1,008 hives, Paul opted to embrace digital beekeeping through BeeSTAR and entered into an agreement with us. Over the past year, we have monitored and analysed 720 of his beehives equipped with BeeSTAR sensors.
Paul has gained confidence in the potential growth of his beekeeping business by adopting advanced technology without additional time and labour. By saving over 30 to 50% of his time, he has expanded his operations to 1,500 hives by 2025. Within just one year of implementing this technology, his capacity for beekeeping has increased by 50%.
Key highlights include:
- Minimal Additional Output: The significant productivity increase was achieved with almost no extra labour or time investment.
- Targeted Inspections: BeeSTAR enables focused hive inspections by providing data on which hives require attention and their health status.
- Efficiency Gains: Without BeeSTAR, Paul would have had to inspect all 720 hives manually, making business expansion a challenging goal.
- Improved Hive Health: Overall hive performance across his apiaries has significantly improved since using the technology.
Paul has already placed an order for additional sensors and noted that a mere 10% improvement in hive performance translated to an equivalent increase in profit. This increase did not include the value attributed to labour savings and reduced costs.
BeeSTAR has already enabled Paul to receive additional payments per hive for almond pollination, highlighting the tangible benefits and value our technology and data can provide.
Use of Funds
We are using data to detect anomalies within hives and enable beekeepers to perform targeted hive inspections. Starting in November, we’ll expand the service to include symptoms of swarm prediction and new queen hive acceptance status. All of this is backed by our Hive Health Matrix and proprietary algorithms.
We currently have commercial contracts with six beekeepers, and based on their feedback and documented cost savings from using BeeSTAR, we are planning a full-scale marketing campaign and major product upgrade from early 2025 with the fund.
We have requests for trials overseas, but with our current staffing, it's challenging to handle all R&D requests. We aim to raise capital so more people can learn about our work and join us in advancing this mission to accelerate the process to achieve our financial goals.
Key Risks
Failure to maintain existing customers or win new customers:
The Company’s ability to maintain successful relationships with existing customers or win new customers is fundamental to its business, growth and future profitability. There can be no guarantee that the Company will be successful in retaining or winning customers.
Cashflow risk:
The Company’s operating activities involve a series of cash inflows and outflows. Although the Company seeks to manage its cash flow efficiently, there is a risk that the Company may not have sufficient cash or working capital, at times, to fund both its operations and its expansion plans. This could affect the Company’s profitability, future prospects, and its ability to meet its business objectives.
Industrial Risk:
Industrial disruptions, work stoppages, safety issues and accidents in the course of the Company’s operations could result in losses and delays, which may adversely affect profitability.
About Swarmer
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