Artemis Technologies was recently awarded Social Innovation seed funding from RADIUS and Embark. Written by Brandon Chapman.
Dr. Professor Lubik and Dr. Kevin Oldknow have been championing a program that pulls together business students with mechatronics students here at SFU. Sponsored by Dr. Ken Spencer, the Technology Entrepreneurship program gives young entrepreneurs the skills and the resources to create a new technology venture. Jessica Peare, Miguel Cruz and Ben Tuline, captains of SFU’s drone club – Team Guardian have partnered up with business students Clair Lam, Brandon Chapman and Joey Boulé to create Artemis Technologies.
Berry farmers in British Columbia can lose up to a third of their crops from a single disease and this is costing farmers millions of dollars in British Columbia. Many of these losses are preventable, if the disease is detected early enough. Now, we have Artemis. Artemis uses drones and sensor analysis software to provide precision agriculture services for berry farmers in BC. Traditional monitoring services (like manned roamers) are unreliable and expensive (like manned aircrafts) and all have slow reaction times resulting in lost crop yield and inefficient distribution of pesticides and irrigation. We add value by providing a much more effective surveying solution at an affordable price.
So far we’ve secured funding through three sources:
- Tech Entrepreneurship program
- SFU’s Opportunity Fest where we won 1st place in the “Most Investable Category”
- And most recently, we’re humbled to receive a grant from RADIUS’ social innovation program.
All of these funding opportunities wouldn’t be money well spent if it wasn’t for all the great mentorship and support we receive from the SFU community. As new members of SFU Venture Connection, Artemis is now running a pilot this summer testing with a number of government agencies and private corporations. For more information on the project please email Brandon at bwc6@sfu.ca.