The Bee Corp. Investment Memo
Meera Ventures 08.26.2020
Summary
The Bee Corp is a startup developing solutions for commercial pollination. They provide a platform for commercial beekeepers to determine beehive strength by using infrared image analysis. The data and insights collected by the Verifli solution incorporates physical and biological properties to assess pollination value.
Funding: $540K
Stage: Seed
Product
Verifli
Smartphone infrared camera and Platform that uses infrared image analysis to determine the strength of a beehive and ultimately the hives pollination value.
Focused on determining the strength of the hive, not preventing hive loss.
Dashboard allows beekeepers and farmers to visualize data and deploy resources more efficiently.
Communication tool that helps growers and beekeepers tailor expectations.
Snap photo > image converted to data > numbers crunched, calculated, and adjusted.
Market
Commercial Beekeeping is a $767M market in the U.S.
Commercial Beekeeping adds between $15-20B in economic value to agriculture each year.
Bees need to pollinate one-third of crops in the U.S.
Commercial Beekeepers & Growers (all plants need pollination, some like almonds are more sensitive to bee pollination).
Competition
Honestly could not find any.
Infrared cameras are starting to be used by beekeepers but nothing like what The Bee Corp is doing.
Business Model
Pricing is determined by number of hives.
Hive strength & effective data analysis corelates to increased crop yield and greater economic value for stakeholders.
The Bee Corp sells its Verifli platform to commercial beekeepers and growers.
Team
Founded by University of Indiana students Ellie Symes and Wyatt Wells who are passionate about beekeeping (also started the beekeeping club at UI).
Since founding sales, software engineering, data science, operations, and research positions have been added.
Opportunities
Global Expansion.
Consolidate market share in a very segmented industry.
Scalability & economic value propositions for all types of agriculture.
Risks
Beekeeping industry is very segmented and gaining widespread adoption could be challenging.
The bee population has been shrinking and the success of The Bee Corp could be affected by the overall health of the bee species.
Learn Something
Pesticide Action Network North America: The Economic Value of Commercial Beekeeping
Extension: Bee Health Community
Bayer Research: Bee Care
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): Represents the total amount of money a customer is expected to spend in your business, or on your products, during their lifetime.