The Canadian technology company said shrimp farmers need to understand what is happening to their stocks, prevent disease, ensure weight gain with an efficient FCR while maximizing pond yield, and meeting customer orders on schedule. Up until recently, they have relied mostly on manual quality control and visual inspection to make decisions that impact their revenues, said XpertSea CEO Valerie Robitaille.
She said the company's newly developed XpertSea Growth Platform tries to automate a lot of that. It builds on the capabilities of the company’s XperCount, a tool that uses optics, computer vision and machine learning to count, size, weigh and image aquatic organisms.
“The Growth Platform is a web-based initiative that uses data from XperCount but also data from other types of inputs - feed and water quality information, for example. It then centralizes all that information on the platform and producers can use that to manage their farms, so follow the growth of the animal, optimize their FCR and then do analysis regarding feeding regimes, for example.
"They can then really measure the impact and come to a conclusion about what is working and what is not working,” Robitaille told us.
Weight distribution
The company said XpertSea Growth Platform tracks growth from day one in the hatchery through nursery, grow-out and harvesting. Based on deep learning and AI, it said the platform can predict future organism size, their weight distribution and pond composition.
The platform is subscription based, said the CEO. It can be used as a stand-alone technology but provides a more optimal service when combined with the Canadian firm’s XperCount, said Robitaille
The platform is currently being deployed on shrimp farms, and can be used all the way to harvest, said the CEO.
It is applicable for use in trout and tilapia hatcheries also, where it is challenging to get biomass information, she said.
Adoption is going well in the shrimp farm sector; the company wants to accelerate progress in that direction, and is looking to get good traction on the trout and tilapia hatchery side, she added.
We reported on the $10m CAD in Series A financing that the female-led technology company raised back in April. That financing round compriseda co-investment led by Obvious Ventures and Aqua-Spark, as well as Real Ventures.