The Yield is an Australian agricultural technology company, on a mission to transform food and farming practices with scalable digital technology. The Yield uses Internet of Things (IoT), data science and artificial intelligence (AI) to power its technology, which is being used to solve real challenges at farm level and throughout the food chain. Its Sensing+ microclimate solution combines sensors and analytics to provide information and predictions, which help growers make important on-farm decisions like when to irrigate, feed, plant, protect, and harvest. The Yield won ‘Startup of the Year’ and ‘Big Data & Machine Learning Innovation of the Year’ at the 2017 iAwards for its Sensing+ microclimate solution.
In 2016-17, The Yield was still an early-stage startup in the process of seeking out partners and customers. We knew we had a truly innovative solution for the agriculture sector, and entering the iAwards seemed like a logical step to help take the business to the next level. Renowned for finding and fostering new Australian technological advances, the iAwards platform, and that of the AIIA, values bringing innovations to the market and even helping to scale them globally, which was exactly where we wanted to go – and have now achieved. Exposure at the stage of business is worth its weight in gold, and the iAwards audience was the right kind of people we wanted to get to know better.
Entering the iAwards was an enlightening experience. Yes – it was time-consuming, but well worth the effort. For young companies and entrepreneurs, the application process makes you really think about your solution and is an invaluable step in terms of setting it on the right track towards commercialisation. The focus of the awards is to drill down to what problem it solves, when so many people can get caught up in the technology itself and how it works. We spent over two years talking to growers to really understand what they need from a sensor and data-based AgTech solution, so this is exactly how we approached the development of Sensing+, which I believe worked to our advantage. Once you understand the problem your technology solves, how it works to solve it and help the people who use it comes naturally.
Our advice for those entering the iAwards is to keep entries short, succinct and to the point. Include any statistics or evidence you can and keep your focus on the problem you’re solving. Remember, the judges reading the entries are human too, so ensure it is well-written and engaging. And of course, allow them to see the passion for your technology you undoubtedly have!
Winning two iAwards was an absolute honour, especially as there were so many amazing submissions in that category. It was great to see our hard work pay off and to be acknowledged, as well as receive recognition from such a reputable industry body. Winning was also invaluable in terms of exposure; nothing helps our sales team more than starting a conversation with someone who already has heard of us, knows what we do and knows we’ve won awards.
Since our win, The Yield has gone from strength to strength, both within ANZ and internationally, with several large corporate clients. We have a long list of exciting news and launches coming in 2019 – some of which we may be able to enter into the iAwards.
For more information about The Yield, visit our website.