Reporting from the field
Monsanto deploys sensors from Madison company
Madison-based weather technology startup Understory has teamed up with agriculture giant Monsanto to bring localized weather reports to remote parts of Argentina. The deal will deploy Understory’s solar-powered weather stations to fields in Argentina’s corn-growing regions, Córdoba and Buenos Aires. The data from Understory’s sensors will help Monsanto decide how to irrigate fields, manage harvest times and execute seed production.
Each station provides 50,000 measurements a second that are sent to Understory’s real-time weather monitor. It can give the precise size of hail, rainfall, temperature and humidity. The sensors can detect the amount of moisture leaving the plant and where a plant is in its lifecycle to help determine peak harvesting time.
The idea is for farmers to know how their crops are performing to better allocate resources.
Understory also works with insurance companies to improve claims experiences by providing
damage analytics. The product can save insurance companies 20% to 30% per storm, Understory CEO Alex Kubicek said. The idea is to use the savings to lower rates across the country.
“The forecast does a pretty good job of telling you what to wear outside or to get an umbrella,” Kubicek said in an interview. “But when severe weather is coming through, it is very hard for forecasters to predict as well as understand.
That’s where our technology helps. Weather is extremely hyperlocal. A tornado may only destroy a few homes inside a subdivision.”
Understory has 15 employees, and around 500 of its sensors have been deployed. With Monsanto, it will deploy a few dozen more. The stations don’t require routine maintenance and can go untouched for more than five years.
“Understory provides the only technology necessary to make hyper-local weather valuable for opera-
tions management in agricultural areas where local weather information is not accurate,” Giovanni Piccinni, Monsanto’s global supply chain field optimization lead, said in a news release announcing the collaboration.
“With localized accurate data, growers can streamline operational challenges and boost economic outcomes. We anticipate this being an important and valuable partnership.”
Monsanto and Understory worked together on a pilot program last year in Hawaii to test and refine how the weather data would be used in growing operations.
Monsanto Growth Ventures, the firm’s venture capital arm, invested in Understory during its $7.5 million round completed in 2016. Madison-based 4490 Ventures was a lead funder.
While it started in Madison, Understory moved to Boston a year after its inception in 2013. Kubicek said the company’s trouble raising capital from riskaverse investors in Wisconsin prompted the move. Understory returned to Wisconsin after its multimillion-dollar investment round. In all, Understory has raised more than $10 million in five years.
Kubicek has a master’s degree in atmospheric science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Understory plans to continue its international expansion. The sensors can be deployed anywhere in the world and work in areas without cellular reception.
Kubicek said he plans to double the number of employees at Understory in the next year. The company is also working on raising another round of capital, he said.
Understory was in nationally ranked startup accelerator gener8tor’s first class.