Irish start-up Agricultural Magnetics, t/a MagGrow, has
been named winner of the 2016 Thrive Accelerator Sustainability Award, at the 2nd
annual Forbes AgTech Summit held in Salinas, California.
The Forbes AgTech Summit brings together over 500 of
the smartest and most entrepreneurial minds in Silicon Valley and global
agriculture to tackle some of the world’s most critical challenges.
MagGrow
is a pioneering magnetic spraying technology which reduces drift by up to 80%
while at the same time delivering superior coverage, a key challenge of existing
drift reduction technologies.
Headquartered
at NovaUCD, the Centre for New Ventures and Entrepreneurs at University College
Dublin (UCD), MagGrow was one of
just 12 companies from around the world, and the only company from Ireland,
selected to participate on the 2016 Thrive Accelerator Programme for promising
Food and AgTech start-ups.
Through the 8-week Thrive
Accelerator Programme, an initiative of SVG Partners, companies
benefited from high-level mentorship, collaboration and direct access to the
world’s top fresh agriculture companies in and around Salinas and the central
California growing region.
The awards ceremony was the
culmination of Thrive’s Demo Day on the first morning of the 2016 Forbes AgTech
summit. Demo Day, the hallmark event of the Thrive cohort class, provided the
participating start-ups the opportunity to showcase their solutions to a broad
audience of investors and corporate partners.
Each start-up pitch was scored by
executives from Taylor Farms, Land O’Lakes, Western Growers Association, Wells
Fargo, JV Smith, SAP, many of whom are a part of the Thrive programme as
mentors during the year.
It is estimated by the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations that 20 to 40 percent of global
crop output is lost due to plant pests and diseases. Growers combat pests and
diseases by spraying herbicide, fungicides and insecticide to improve crop
quality and yield.
An unintended consequence of
spraying is spray drift, which occurs when application dust or droplets move
through the air or soil to an unintended site. Nearby communities, adjacent to
crop fields, plants, water supply or other bodies of water, are all impacted by
spray applications.
To solve this problem MagGrow has
developed a pioneering magnetic spraying technology system which utilises the
fact that all living plants and soil have a magnetic field.
Through MagGrow’s technology,
which involves the attachment of a series of magnetic inserts onto a sprayer , an
electromagnetic charge is infused into the liquid spray, resulting in targeted
attraction and superior coverage of the plant or soil resulting in a reduction
of spray drift by over 80%.
The superior drift control and coverage provided by MagGrow’s technology means that profitability is increased through reduced pesticide wastage, productivity is improved through increased spray windows while supporting environmental regulations and a better environment.
In addition field studies of
MagGrow’s technology on commercial farms in The Netherlands, Kenya and Ethiopia
have demonstrated reduction in water usage, reduction in disease pressure, increased
spray capacity and reduced labour input due to fewer changeovers of the
sprayer, and less waste and environmental contamination.
Gary Wickham, CEO, MagGrow said, “We are truly delighted
to have won the 2016 Thrive Accelerator Sustainability Award. It is a great
testimony to the dedication of the MagGrow team in the development of our
unique technology that has significant transformational benefits for the arable
and horticulture sectors.”
He added, “The world’s population is estimated to
grow to 9 billion by 2050 so the demand for food and water will increase
dramatically but by using current farming methods we simply will not be able to
meet this demand. But we truly believe that every generation has the right to a
sustainable supply of food and water and so we must find better ways to grow
and that is why we developed MagGrow.”
In addition to MagGrow, microbiome
testing company Trace Genomics received the 2016 Thrive Accelerator Innovation Award and
artificial intelligence and computer vision company GeoVisual
received 2016 Thrive
Accelerator Operational Excellence Award.
SVG Partners Founder and CEO John
Hartnett, who presented the awards to each of the three companies said, “These
three companies, like all of the companies that went through the THRIVE
accelerator this year, demonstrate the potency of technology in the agriculture
sector. MagGrow, Trace Genomics and GeoVisual are the type of companies that
will demonstrate how we get to higher crop yield and ensure sustainability
through the advent of new technologies and practices.”
Nuritas Research, the Irish bioinformatics
start-up, participated on the 2015 Thrive Accelerator Programme and was the winner
of the 2015 Thrive Accelerator Award.
Nuritas, founded by Dr Nora Khaldi, had previously
completed the 3-month UCD 2013 VentureLaunch Accelerator Programme held at
NovaUCD.
For
further information contact Micéal Whelan,
University College Dublin, Communications Manager (Innovation), t: + 353 1 716
3712, e: miceal.whelan@ucd.ie or Alison Healy, Chief Commercial Officer, MagGrow, t: + 353 1 716 3695, e: alison.healy@maggrow.global. Twitter:
@MagGrowglobal. LinkedIn:MagGrow
Editor’s
Notes
MagGrow, founded
in 2013 by Gary Wickham, Derek Wickham and David Moore, now
employs a staff of 12 people. MagGrow is currently trading in East Africa and
is launching in Europe in 2016.
MagGrow operates in two distinct
markets, tailoring its product lines to distinct growing practices of
developing and developed markets. In developing countries, where the average
farm size is only 1 ha, and spraying is mostly conducted using simple knapsack
sprayers, MagGrow offers a turnkey range of backpack sprayers. These backpack
sprayers allow smallholder farmers to reduce the water and chemical application
rates by 80% when compared to conventional spraying methods.
For developed markets, where
growers use specialised spraying equipment such as field boom sprayers and air
blast sprayers, MagGrow’s product is sold in the form of a retrofit kit that
can be easily installed onto all manufacturer sprayer types. www.maggrow.global
THRIVE Accelerator is a unique international
business program for promising start-ups in the areas of Food and AgTech. www.thriveaccelerator.com
SVG Partners, based
in Silicon Valley, CA, is an investment, technology and advisory firm that partners
with organizations on strategy, innovation and global expansion. www.svgpartners.com
At NovaUCD, the hub for new ventures and entrepreneurs at University
College Dublin, we nurture and support new high-tech and knowledge-intensive
companies as part of UCD’s mission. At NovaUCD we provide purpose-built,
state-of-the-art incubation facilities alongside a comprehensive business
support programme for client companies such as MagGrow. NovaUCD has been funded
through a unique public-private partnership that includes AIB Bank, Arthur Cox,
Deloitte, Enterprise Ireland, Ericsson, Goodbody Stockbrokers, UCD and Xilinx. www.ucd.ie/novaucd
