AERIAL CROP DIAGNOSTICS

PROBLEM
• Food demand will increase 70% by 2050

• Farming is still very inefficient:

 Yield per acre can vary 400% within single field

 $20B in fertilizer is wasted each year

 10-20% yield increase potential in US crops

 Diseases cause $33B in crop loss despite $12B spent on

pesticides
REVOLUTION

“We’re witnessing a new farming revolution triggered by the adoption of staggering

new technologies combined with high-tech engineering”

- Precision Farming: the New Agricultural Revolution

“It’s not your grandfather’s farm anymore.”

PRECISION AGRICULTURE

By generating detailed insights, farmers can make data-

based decisions that will optimize yield and boost revenue
while minimizing expenses and the chances of crop failure
SKYSQUIRREL SOLUTION
• We provide data analytics for precision agriculture

• NASA technology for finding water on Mars applied to drone

imaging

• Allows precise monitoring of crop health

• Current focus on vineyards

MARKET

Global wine Vineyard Commercial

market: acreage: vineyards:
$85B 19M 80K+

• High value crop: $20k – $150k per acre in wine revenue

• Crop consultants widely used for specialized services
TECHNOLOGY
• SkySquirrel’s Integrated turn-key solution:
• proprietary camera
• image processing cloud service
• Autonomous drone platform
• Main focus on high quality imaging data

DRONE
PLATFORM

AQWEO QR-100 DRONE PLATFORM

TM

PATENTE IMAGE
D PROCESSIN
CAMERA G
TECHNOLOGY
• Patent pending
• Narrow band multi-spectral imaging
• Sees beyond visible spectrum
• Customizable optical filters for different applications

DRONE
PLATFORM

QUANTA DRONE CAMERA SYSTEM

TM PATENT
ED
IMAGE
PROCESSIN
CAMER
G
A
TECHNOLOGY

DRONEFUSE CLOUD TM

• SkySquirrel’s online image processing service DRONE

PLATFORM
• Implements NASA technology and 12 years experience
• Exclusively licensed and unique software algorithms for:
 Calibrated vigor mapping PATENTE
D
IMAGE
PROCESSI
CAMERA NG
 Leafroll Disease detection
 Water stress measurements
PAIN

• Wine production focus is on improving quality

• Grape quality inconsistent across vineyard (disease, variations)
• Leafroll Disease is $10B problem
• Current solutions inadequate:
 Timing
 Resolution
 Precision
 Major driving force is brand equity
 VALUE PROPOSITION
• Leafroll Disease
• No treatment options
• Causes loss of $10k - $16k per acre
• Requires replanting of entire vineyard if not managed
• 30%-60% of global vineyards affected
• Losses can be reduced to $0 - $3k per acre with our data
• Quality
• Divide grapes into quality zones for separate harvesting
• Increase quality consistency
• Difference between high/low quality wine $10-$40k per acre
 CURRENT STATUS
Product Launched in December 2014

Ten paying early adopter clients

$150k in sales in first 6 months after launch

$10k in data processing revenue

Products used at top vineyards in France (Grand Cru)

and British Columbia (Mission Hill)

Research collaborations in Canada, France, Chile,

California, and Greece

Exclusive partnership with VineView

 VISION
Leading platform for
crop-specific data analytics for drones

• Establish leadership position early in vineyards

• Offer set of diagnostic tools for hyperspectral data

• Scale SkySquirrel technology to other crops

• Integrate with other data platforms (weather, ground

sensors, farm inputs)
OUR TEAM
Chris MacDonald
VP Business Development
• MBA / Agricultural Engineer
• Business consultant for software
industry
• 8+ years experience in ag sector
• Family investment fund manager
Richard van der Put
CEO
• 10+ years in image analysis
• Start-up product development
expert
• MSc. Biomedical Engineering
• Raised over $4M in private and
government funding
Matt Staid
Scientific Director
• Renowned Expert in Remote Sensing
• Founder of VineView
• 15+ years experience in aerial
imaging in agriculture
• Lead Scientist for NASA
• PhD from Brown University
 BUSINESS
MODEL
• Current customer: crop consultants
• Consultants buy hardware ($10k) and capture images

• SkySquirrel processes data for fee/acre

• Consultants provide results to growers with 100-300% margin

• Pricing:
• Vigor Mapping $4-10 per acre

• Disease Mapping and Water Stress $16-20 per acre

• Average $27k per consultant in 2016, $96k in 2020

• 80-95% margin on recurring data products
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES
Competitive Landscape SPECIFIC
DIAGNOSTIC
Lab Analysis
X
X
• Patent pending DroneFuse QUANTA TM Ground Sensors
X X

• Proprietary algorithms:
GreenSeeker
X X
 Disease detection (Grape Leafroll)
X

 Water stress
X X
 Calibrated Vigor Satellite
X

• Extensive experience in vineyard imaging

using standard airplanes
GENERIC TOOL

RESOLUTION
SUMMARY
METRICS
• Focused on well-defined market
• Customers with proven willingness to pay
• Proprietary hardware and software for monitoring crop health
• SAAS business model servicing $85B wine industry
EXAMPLE 1: Leafroll Detection
 EXAMPLE 2: Vigor Mapping

Raw Images Processed data

 Day 1 Day 2 CAMERA IMPROVEMENT
QUANTA CAMERA TEST
(NDVI)
0.9
0.8
Current Camera 0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
Day 1 Day 2
Current Camera
QUANTA Camera DroneFuse QUANTA

NOTES:
Images taken 1 day apart. All images
calibrated on same reference object. Current
Camera Images shifted by 0.25 to bring in
same color range as QUANTA Images. Same
calibration approach with both cameras.