Their technology has the ability to solve real issues within dairy production by showing real-time milk quality, something that has been a big problem for milk production in the past. This will have a significant social impact as well as huge potential for the entire dairy chain and beyond.

Maassluis, 22 November 2019 - Senorics based in Dresden, Germany is named as the winner of the first edition of ‘Feed the Future by Lely'. Lely, the leading supplier of robotics and data management for the dairy farm, in partnership with Rockstart, one of Europe's first startup accelerators; scouted talented tech entrepreneurs from around the world who think outside the box. The next generation of tech pioneers who could innovate and improve the dairy industry with technology solutions.

Alexander van der Lely, CEO of Lely, commented on the winner: "Senorics have shown impressive cross-industry innovation and true technological advancement. Their technology has the ability to solve real issues within dairy production by showing real-time milk quality, something that has been a big problem for milk production in the past. This will have a significant social impact as well as huge potential for the entire dairy chain and beyond.

NIR spectroscopy
Senorics will now receive €15,000 and the opportunity for both an investment and strategic support from Lely, including access to its extensive worldwide network. Senorics' technology measures the unique ‘optical fingerprint' of substances by detecting their specific absorption characteristics in the near infrared (NIR) wavelength range. NIR spectroscopy is already used for detecting water, fat, proteins and many more substances relevant in the dairy industry. With Senorics, every farmer will be enabled to do such measurements at low cost using small devices either remotely or integrated into their machinery.
"It is tremendous that we are named as the winner out a total of 74 applications for ‘Feed the Future'. We are thankful for an established company like Lely to organise this startup challenge and they see the benefits of raising awareness for new technology. It was also great to meet the other startups and their inventions. We think that the agricultural sector is the best area to deploy our technology. Not only the quality of food will be more important in the future, people also want to know how their food is produced. I am looking forward to starting the collaboration with Lely and have in depth conversations with their experts about the potential applications", said Robert Langer, Chief Commercial Officer of Senorics.
Revolutionising dairy farming
Startups were invited from all over the world to apply and compete in this cutting-edge program. The only prerequisite was that their technology could be applied to the dairy industry. By introducing new tech solutions, still unknown to the dairy industry, new advancements are made through cross-industry innovation. In turn, this will revolutionise the farming process for thousands of dairy farmers worldwide.

The finals consisted of the top eight and included the following technologies; cooling systems, sensor tech, sound AI and pharma. Chosen from an initial pool of 74 startups from 25 countries, they were then invited to The Netherlands to pitch in front of an expert jury made up of Alexander van der Lely and Serge Loosveld of Lely, Robert Erhard of Nestlé, Eduard Meijer of Navus Ventures and experienced technology specialist, Tim Taylor.
Lely believes the global challenges of population growth and climate change demand innovative solutions to feed the future. Not only by increasing food supply, but also by providing innovations that will allow the dairy farming industry to become more sustainable, time-efficient and improve the quality of life of both people and animals on this planet. Both Lely and Rockstart see an ideal future, one that will see machines self-maintain while performing sustainable production in optimum conditions by using improved information. ‘Feed the Future by Lely' brings us another step closer to making this a reality.

For information on the other finalists:
https://feedthefuture.io/finalist-announcement/

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Rockstart
Launched in 2011, Rockstart has accelerated over 200 startups across four core domains that have raised a total of over €89 million and generated more than 700 jobs. Passionate about driving positive change with teams from all over the world, Rockstart plans to support and invest in more than 200 startups in its core domains over the next five years, providing follow-on capital and unparalleled access to the market along the way. To do that, the accelerator partners with large players in respective industries to connect startups to their first customers and foster collaborative innovation.