An agtech startup that can analyse cattle breath to tell if they’re pregnant, sick or belching excessive methane has raised $5 million.
The round for Agscent came from VCs Scale Investors and Tundra Capital (previously Mandalay), as well as family offices and farmers. It values the deep tech startup at $26.9 million.
Economist and farmer Bronwyn Darlington founded her regional NSW startup in 2018 . While trawling NASA’s online patent library and, she found sensing tech developed to monitor astronauts and detect hazardous airborne compounds during space missions. She licencsed for the system an applied it to livestock.
Agscent combines advanced sensors, biological signal analysis and artificial intelligence to identify chemical signatures in breath and air. Darlington calls it a “digital dog’s nose”. The funding will help add AI detection to the product.
The technology can halve the time it takes to detect a cow’s pregnancy from 40 days to as early as 18 days after insemination. It also measures methane to analyse feed efficiency and livestock productivity.
Agscent is now running large-scale US validation programs with Dairy Farmers of America
“Every person breathes. Every animal breathes. Every breath contains information,” Darlington said.
“We’re building technology that can identify and interpret those biological signals in real time.”
Tundra Capital’s Mark Gustowski said there’s broader potential in industrial and environmental monitoring from the technology.
“For farmers, the value is simple. Answers that used to take weeks and a lab now happen on the spot, in the yards, in seconds,” he said.
“That kind of in-situ diagnostic capability takes real pressure off the farms on timing and cost.”