Bees are vital to our ecosystem and agricultural systems, as well as our overall well-being as a species. Yet, bee populations are declining and extinction fears are increasing.Beeflow, a startup, announced today that it has closed a Series A round of $8.3 million. The company aims to save bees while helping farmers become more efficient and productive.The startup's proprietary scientific technology makes bees more resilient to cold weather. The company's extensive research revealed that certain plant-based food and molecules can help bees survive in colder temperatures and reduce their mortality rates.You may be asking yourself what performance means. You're right.The planet's natural pollinators are bees. They transform flowers into fruits, spreading pollen from one place to the next. Many farmers rent beekeepers out to bees so they can pollinate their crops and hang out on their farms. This is almost impossible to measure and the bees themselves are not easily controlled.Beeflows technology makes sure that bees stay healthy and strong. They can fly 7x higher in colder conditions than they would be able without it. These bees are more likely to pollinate crops efficiently and effectively for farmers.The company offers ToBEE, which reduces the bees' mortality. It also trains bees how to harvest a particular crop like blueberries or almonds.These Beeflow products combined have increased crop yields by up to 90% for farmers.Beeflows' business model is double-sided. The Beeflows have their own bees which they lend to farmers for pollination. They also work with beekeepers in order to introduce them to the Beeflow network. While Beekeepers do not pay for the Beeflows technology, they do give rights to their relationships and relations with farmers.Matias Viel, a native Argentine, founded the startup. It is primarily operational in Latin America and on the West Coast of the U.S. with plans to expand to the East Coast or Mexico.Viel stated that the greatest challenge lies in operational and execution. We need to increase the size of our operations and team because there is so much demand.Ospraie Ag Science led the financing round, along with Jeff Wilke, Future Ventures Steve Jurvetson and Vectr Ventures. Grid Exponential was also involved.
