Nectar, the startup that creates IoT sensors and software for more precise commercial beehive management, has raised a $1.1 million CAD (~$824,000) seed round of funding. According to Betakit, which first reported the story, “The round was led by Interdomus Capital, and saw participation from Real Ventures, Upper Canada Equity Fund, First Stone Venture Partners, Third Estate Investments, and other angel impact investors sourced through MaRS’s impact investing platform, SVX.”
Bees are vital to our food supply. As we wrote last year when we first covered Nectar:
According to the USDA, “One out of every three bites of food in the United States depends on honey bees and other pollinators. Honey bees pollinate $15 billion worth of crops each year, including more than 130 fruits and vegetables.” But since 2006, roughly 30 percent of beehives have collapsed due to disease, pesticides and loss of habitat.
Nectar works by inserting a “Beecon” sensor into a hive, which monitors temperature, humidity, audio and movement activity. That data is beamed from the Beecon to the BeeHub station, which transmits the data to the cloud where it is analyzed by Nectar’s software. Beekeepers can then better monitor their hives to see if a new queen is hatching, if the temperature is correct, hive mortality rates and more.
Nectar isn’t the only startup catching the buzz on bee management. ApisProtect in Ireland uses IoT sensors for commercial hives as well, and BroodMinder is an open source solution for bee hobbyists.
Prior to this seed round, Nectar was a part of the Founder Fuel accelerator in Canada, which provided $100,000 (CAD). Nectar told Betakit it will use the new funding to grow its presence in North America and work with more commercial beekeepers and farmers.
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