A company that was founded by three Waterloo Engineering graduates has secured $1.7 million in seed funding to fuel its growth in the agricultural technology space.
IntelliCulture was launched in 2018 by Ramin Shaikhi (BASc ’16, MASc ’19, mechanical engineering), Michael Wu (BASc ’19, mechatronics engineering) and Cole Powers (BASc ’19, mechanical engineering) to help farmers better understand their spray coverage and efficiencies, and manage the upkeep of their assets.
IntelliCulture founders (from left) Cole Powers, Michael Wu and Ramin Shaikhi.
Based in Waterloo, the company uses Internet of Things (IoT) devices that are compatible with a variety of farm machinery to collect data for its subscription software.
“Our beachhead and primary focus right now is in vineyards, so basically wineries,” Powers, the CEO, said in a recent media interview.
IntelliCulture plans to use the seed funding to expand its customer base and double its eight-person workforce within the next year.
The round was led by Emmertech, a Saskatchewan-based venture capital fund with a focus on early-stage startups in agricultural technology.