A German company has been announced as the winner of the second edition of the ‘Feed the Future by Lely’ challenge.
Oculyze based in Wildau has been named as the winner of the second edition of the competition.
The first edition was held in 2019, with start-ups invited from all over the world to apply and compete in the ‘Feed the Future’ challenge with the only requirement being that their technology could be applied to the dairy industry.
Lely has said that the Feed the Future event is an initiative to invest in innovations that contribute to greater transparency and that prioritise improving the lives of farmers and animals in the food production process.
The challenge was designed to tackle four key areas in global dairy farming: Farm animal welfare; pioneering enhancements of machinery; sustainable and efficient production; and transparency in the information chain.
‘Feed the Future by Lely’
A total of four start-ups were chosen from an initial pool of 82. The 82 start-ups represented 22 countries competing to be the winner of the Feed the Future challenge.
Their technologies focused on microscopic imagery, fleet management and sensor tech.
The start-ups went through a three-week programme, where they met with a pool of more than 50 experts from Lely, with the aim of learning more about the vision and goals of Lely.
But also to align on where their technology could add the most value, and to design a pilot around that.
Commenting on the winner, Andre van Troost, CEO of Lely, stated: ‘The four finalists all had very strong pitches, but the one that really stood out for us was Oculyze.
“We very much believe in the technique and software presented. Oculyze has a strong feeling with our industry, which was also important for us.
“They ticked the sustainable, profitable and enjoyable boxes. It wasn’t easy, but there could only be one winner,” he added.
Oculyze
Ocyluze is using machine learning and artificial intelligence to transfer the computer vision software for lab equipment from the table to the cloud.
The technology will make it possible to perform certain tests on farms, with the farmer receiving the results within minutes to their smartphone, instead of waiting for the lab results for a few days.
Hannah Braun, product manager at Oculyze, stated: “We are super happy and very relieved.
“It has been two intense days, but we are very honoured that we have won this challenge out of the 82 applicants.
“We are really looking forward to [doing] this pilot with Lely. Because we want to establish a use case for our technology, winning this challenge gives us the opportunity to do so.”