Agtech Accelerator: Smartbell

Livestock health is front of mind for Smartbell—a health monitoring and management system.

Smartbell is part of a cohort of 14 agtech companies looking to advance in the sector through an Agtech Accelerator located here in Regina.

CEO, Veena Adityan, said she was formerly employed at Amazon, but wanted to tackle something different and saw an opportunity in agriculture.

“I wanted to start something new, but at the same time I was going back to my roots. I have grandparents who had mixed farms back in India and I have an uncle who is a dairy farm back in India … and I felt there was a lot of benefit to be had in the agriculture sector and really has a lot of need,” she explained.

That’s when Smartbell was born; a device that aims to empower livestock farmers and the entire livestock value chain, which can struggle with many data silos.

These smart ear tags or collars provide data insights and operational alerts on factors such as …

• Oestrus
• Calving
• Feed monitoring
• Environmental monitoring (heat or cold stress on the animals)
• Animal counting with location check-ins
• Activity and behaviour profiles

With this information in one place, farmers can grant access of the reports to their vet, nutritionist or insurance provider.

Eyeing Saskatchewan

As a UK-based company, Adityan said she is excited for the opportunities the Agtech Accelerator and the local market can provide.

“It’s been quite a journey, we’ve learned a lot … of what Saskatchewan has to offer,” she said. “There’s the R and D support. There seems to be so much support for getting set up here.”

Adityan added she was quite happy to see there is a lot of openness to tech here.

“I’m hoping we can find some really good partners who can really support us on the ground here with some distribution and access to farms.”

Want to see more about what Smartbell is and how it can impact your farm? Check them out at Canada’s Farm Show as they participate in Demo Day Wednesday June 22.