- Did someone refer you to Starta?
Business angel Eduard Fiyaksel
- Country of origin?
Russia
- What's your background?
I studied Radiophysics and Electronics (MS, 1989, Nizhny Novgorod Lobachevsky State University). I studied Radiophysics and Electronics (MS, 1989, Nizhny Novgorod Lobachevsky State University). Obtained 42 inventions patented in USA, Europe, Japan, China and South Korea; Around 40 published scientific papers, printed in international magazines and materials of the scientific conferences.
- Tell us about other team members
Alexey Umnov (author of technology and project founder, Russia) - PhD, more than 20 years of experience in the development of start-ups in the field of IoT and telecommunications. Co-founder of start-ups "Forest Watch" (
lesdozor.ru/en/) and "Road TV". Facebook page
www.facebook.com/profile.php
Boris Raiskiy (Technical Director, USA) More than 20 years in development (engineer, software developer): Samsung Electronics, Bloomberg LP, HBO. Currently resides in the US (New Jersey) and is a US citizen. Facebook page
www.facebook.com/boris.rayskiy
Ilya Sokolov (project manager, Russia), CEO of AcquiHunter platform, 5 years experience in the venture business. Worked in business angel and investment structures, such as the "Start Invest" Investment Association of Business Angels (Russia, Nizhny Novgorod). Facebook page
www.facebook.com/insokolov
Branislava Jankovic (project manager, Serbia), student of Nizhny Novgorod Lobachevsky State University, developer of greenhouses, engineer. Facebook page
www.facebook.com/branislava.jankovic.1
Lavr Kryukov (agrotechnology specialist). For many years head of the laboratory for the innovative production of plants in UNN.
- How did you hear about Starta and why did you get interested?
We know Starta for a long time and believe that our project is ideal for acceleration and development in the United States. Starta expertise would be very helpful for our startup development on the US market.
- What is the most daring thing you have done in your life?
For several years (from 2005 to 2011), I developed a technology startup that attracted angel investments of several million rubles. The startup was associated with the innovative production of high purity semiconductor and infrared optics materials. Unfortunately, after three years of development, I was forced to close the company, due to the lack of prospects in the Russian market. This time I plan to use all the accumulated experience for the development of the project in the US market
- What is the problem you are solving?
Currently, individual enthusiasts in the USA are creating small city-farming independent solutions for apartments, for balconies and for roofs, at the same time large specialized hydroponic farms with vertical placement are being created. Thus, on the one hand, there is no scaling, and on the other hand, there is no individuality of the solution.
Creating a cloud system of "smart greenhouses" will combine the advantages of the scale of large vertical farms and the individuality of the product of small home solutions.
One of the main problems of city farming is the low educational level of beginner city farmers and the lack of distance learning courses and consulting support for them.
Also, at present there is no SCADA for city farmers, allowing using simple tools to create different types of farm farms and control their work.
There is no developed infrastructure that would undertake most of the work on external support of the city farm:
- order and delivery of consumables
- export and sale of the crop
- optimization of plans for the cultivation of various crops, taking into account the actions of other market participants
- solution of non-standard tasks
- repair and routine maintenance
- training in city farming and consulting on difficult issues
Thus, fans of city farmers will solve a number of problems related to the control (including remote) of growing their products and their sale (export of surplus to retail chains, integration with courier services, and so on). Schools and their school gardens will receive an excellent educational tool, and the major players-farmers will be able to automate a number of processes associated with growing plants.
Problems of city farmers:
1. There are no standard proven automated solutions that allow starting a citferm from scratch on proven standard equipment with a city farming SCADA, which allows for easy installation of a city farm by a person without special IT education, managing this farm, modifying it flexibly to fit the requirements, and simple scaling of the solution.
2. There are no cloud services that simplify the maintenance of the city farmers operations, increase its profitability and facilitate the start of activities for small city farms, using free household and public building spaces distributed throughout the city (interior spaces of buildings, roofs, basements, backyards, etc.) namely :
- services for the delivery of consumables on demand, generated automatically by city farms
- repair and routine maintenance services on demand, generated automatically
- services that provide for the purchase and export of finished products on demand, generated automatically
- certification services for city farmers products
- delivery service of products from city farming network to end users
3. There are no remote training and consulting systems for city farmers.
- Who else is trying to solve it? Who are your competitors?
Currently, several projects are working on solving the problem. Products from the Farmers Business Network, Growing Underground, Land O'Lakes can remotely control the basic parameters, get analytics, but they are aimed exclusively at professional farmers, because their solutions are very expensive - from $ 700 and do not take into account the specifics of amateur farmers. Moreover, the Farmers Business Network solution is internal (not for sale), but we consider them because they can bring it to market. Of all the competitors, the prospects of embedding in a “smart home” (as in our project) are only in Smart Farm. But this project is still at the stage of university research and is not available for the market.
- What is the market size/opportunity?
In New York there are more than 700 "green roofs" and tens of thousands of "makers" and enthusiasts who create gardens at home, urban farms are actively developing. There is School Gardens program - 725 urban school gardens. The GreenThumb program alone brings together 20,000 enthusiasts.
The global market for city farming and hydroponics is growing at an annual rate of 26% and is estimated to reach $ 13 billion by 2024.
- What is your competitive advantage?
We can easily, quickly and cheaply (the cost of full integration is not more than $ 300) connect existing city-farming solutions to our cloud system and without special difficulties to integrate both professional farms and amateur home solutions into our environment. The solution can be embedded in the system of "smart home".
- How will you get people to use your product?
At the first stage of the project development (during acceleration) we plan to implement the project “Green Ridgewood”. This project will allow us to get about 100 subscribers to the cloud system through direct sales. City farming club will be organized for the project implementation (leisure clubs are very popular in the area where residents' annual income exceeds $120K, and they spend a significant part of money on such activities). There will be greenhouses installed and connected and educational seminars on city farming will be organized. Also, a pilot project is being negotiated with the local school (connecting their school garden to our cloud system).
In the future, we plan to promote the project through “green” associations, associations of city farmers in New York, because in this case we will be able to cover entire groups of the most active consumers.
- What is your business model?
At the MVP stage, our business model has the following form: Connecting existing mini-greenhouses and urban farms on open ground to the Fruits of Progress cloud system for remote control and tracking of basic parameters (humidity, temperature, pressure, light). Installation of sensors and automation systems ($ 300 or free after a year of subscription service). Subscription fee (from $ 10 per month).
In the future we plan:
1. Sale of the kits of a City Farmer
2. Organization of cloud services for purchased packages
3. Organization of training of city farmers
4. Organization of online consultations
Revenue streams:
1. Sale of the City Farmer sets
2. Subscription fee for connection to cloud services
3. Fees for distance courses and consultations
Value proposition:
1. The solution of the problem of creating and managing complex automated city farms for amateur city farmers and makers.
2. Providing support infrastructure for them.
3. Turning free space into money.
4. Organizing a prestigious hobby using handy tools
5. Training in order to increase future competitiveness in the labor market and profit from city-farming.
- What is the status of your product?
Current product status - the first version of the cloud platform has been developed; Test network deployed in three countries (Russia, USA, Serbia); Prototypes of Penelopa greenhouses were created (a separate product, we can connect existing city-farming solutions to the cloud system).
Preliminary agreements have been reached with Ridgewood High School (New Jersey) to introduce a “pilot project” in their school gardens.
- What is the status of the company?
The company is registered in the USA. At the moment, the company has not received any investments and has developed due to the enthusiasm of the founders working on the project since the beginning of 2019.
- Please describe the technology behind your product.
The project is based on the cloud system developed by project founder Alexey Umnov and “smart greenhouses” developed jointly by Alexey Umnov, Boris Raisky and Branislava Jankovic.
