Belfast-based livestock-monitoring tech company CattleEye has secured $2.5 million (€2.1 million) in seed investment as it looks to go to market.
CattleEye has developed an autonomous livestock welfare and performance monitoring product that uses artificial intelligence in video analytics to increase animal welfare levels and reduce carbon emission intensity by around half a tonne per cow per year.
The first version of the company’s product, which has yet to be released, detects locomotion deviations, which are highly correlated to lameness in dairy cows.
Founded in 2019, CattleEye is lining up for commercial launch later this year. Its technology is currently being used by a group of pioneer dairy farms along with retailers Tesco and Marks & Spencer. In addition, the US Council of Dairy Cattle Breeding is using the technology to explore how data can be used in genomic selection to help improve overall hoof health in dairy cows worldwide.
The funding round was a syndicate led by Techstart Ventures and including Paris-based VC Seventure Partners and Turntide Technologies, a Silicon Valley venture backed by Amazon.
"We are really excited to be bringing the very latest in deep learning and artificial intelligence technology to one of oldest industries in world, livestock farming. This recent investment will give us the firepower to increase productivity, animal welfare and decrease the carbon footprint of millions of dairy cows across the globe," said chief executive Terry Canning.
