Omer Davidi, Co-Founder & CEO of Bee Hero, joins NYSE Floor Talk with Judy Shaw.
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00:0075% of crops out there depends on bees for pollination.
00:04Without bees, we don't have anything to do on this planet.
00:07And we developed technology that can actually
00:09support and enhance bees so they can pollinate better
00:12and support the food production process,
00:14basically becoming an essential component
00:16of global food production.
00:18How does your technology work on there?
00:25So we have a sensor that goes into the beehive.
00:28So this unit sits inside the hive.
00:30We measure things like temperature, humidity, sound,
00:32and many more things from inside the hives.
00:34And that helps us to early detect and predict
00:36things that will cause those colonies to collapse
00:38if not treated on time.
00:40So we work very closely with beekeepers all year long
00:43to ensure that they can provide the best quality
00:45hives out there to the field.
00:47And the bees do the pollination process.
00:49They know what to do.
00:50And what was your inspiration for starting the company?
00:53Coming from cybersecurity, it's kind of a shift
00:57dealing with food security.
00:58But I think once you realize that food production
01:02and pollination is something that affects
01:03every single person on this planet,
01:05you want to see how technology can make this better.
01:08I think as we realize how fragile the system is
01:11and how much we like food,
01:12we need to understand how we can take technologies
01:15not just to the most exciting areas or ecosystems
01:19and also utilize it in industries
01:21that were kind of left behind, I would say.
01:24And meeting one of my co-founders
01:26who is a commercial beekeeper was kind of a eye opening,
01:30a door opening into this fascinating world
01:32and bringing tech is just amazing.
01:35And how do you stand out or stand apart
01:38from others that might be in this industry?
01:40So I think as we look at agriculture,
01:42there are a lot of challenges in this specific industry,
01:44very seasonal, different geographies,
01:47different commodities that we focus on.
01:50And then in some cases, the investment that needs to be
01:53if you're trying to shift the gaps
01:54in a very significant way, require a lot of investments.
01:58And that's where the adoption is not necessarily there
02:01to support the amount of money that we need.
02:04Our focus in the early day was to make sure
02:06that we utilize low cost sensors
02:09in order to provide big value.
02:10So we started from inside the hive
02:12to ensuring that we can introduce strong
02:15and healthy colonies to the field,
02:16which is the most important thing.
02:17If you have no bees, you get no pollination.
02:20Later on, we utilize the same technology
02:22using the infield sensors to actually test
02:25how well the pollination is done in the field
02:28and then adopt different practices
02:29to ensure the process is done well.
02:31So I think the combination of trying to look
02:34at a low cost hardware components
02:36integrated in an old fashioned industry
02:38and working with the industry to change
02:41is kind of our model in the way
02:42that we've managed to scale very fast
02:44over the last few years.
02:46And as you look to the year ahead, what are you focused on?
02:49Mostly about geographic expansion
02:52and commodity diversification.
02:54I mean, we started in certain commodities
02:56in certain markets, especially in the US.
02:58And now as we expand into other territories
03:01like berries and apples and cherries and so on,
03:03we realized that the pollination challenge
03:05of each one of those commodities is quite significant.
03:08And it goes all the way up to commodities like coffee
03:11that are extremely volatile
03:12and heavily dependent on pollination.
03:14So we need to make sure that we're not spreading too thin
03:18and we are still focused on what we do,
03:20but still bringing the goods of precision pollination
03:22as a service to other commodities out there.
03:24Omer, wonderful to talk with you.
03:26Thanks for joining me on Floor Talk.
03:28Thank you, great to be here.