AgTech

Beehive sensors, meat made from plant protein, horticultural robotics and electric farm bikes kicked off the first Hardware Meetup AKL on Wednesday evening.

A huge thank you goes to BuzzTech, Sunfed Meats, Robotics Plus, and Locus Research for speaking.

Event attendees included engineers, founders, product developers and executives working in companies such as Emirates Team New Zealand, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, GPC Electronics, Fonterra, Trademe, BEP Marine, Blender, Anemoi Robotics, TruTest, Callaghan Innovation, Downer and PushPay.

The fantastic GridAKL sponsored the venue, and Wharf42, Datacom and Garage Project sponsored the food and drinks.

Julian McCurdy

Having successfully completed the Sprout Agri-Tech Accelerator early in 2016 and securing seed funding in August 2016, BuzzTech is now piloting its technology with key partners, preparing for production ramp-up, and looking forward to Series A fundraising in 2017.

Learning about the latest #IoT tech for #beekeeping with buzztech.nz @HardwareAKL @GridAKL pic.twitter.com/ldSV2UUKA7

— Paul Salisbury (@paulsalis) November 9, 2016

"We were managing 150 beehive sites, by keeping track of them only in our heads we forgot a few of them" @BeezThingz #hardwareAKL

— Hardware Meetup AKL (@HardwareAKL) November 9, 2016

"The average commercial bee keeper in NZ has between 10-15,000 hives and they use a diary to manage them" @BeezThingz #hardwareAKL

— Hardware Meetup AKL (@HardwareAKL) November 9, 2016

The first path to commercialisation was not the successful one for Buzztech, an accelerator helped them define their core offer #HardwareAKL pic.twitter.com/0r8iX4OXzS

— GridAKL (@GridAKL) November 9, 2016

"We are raising our series A. For now we're using NZ as a pilot for the international market" @BeezThingz #hardwareAKL

— Hardware Meetup AKL (@HardwareAKL) November 9, 2016

Julian is looking for more beekeepers to trial his product - if you're interested, please flick him an email.

Shama Lee

Shama has attracted high profile global and local investors, and is setting up the first plant-based meat processing plant in the Southern Hemisphere. Sunfed Meats recently won the Innovation Excellence in Research Award at the 2016 NZ Innovation Awards.

Fan girling right now! @SunfedMeats in the room at #hardwareakl meat made with vegetable protein! Yuuuus #tech meets #vegan pic.twitter.com/6WzWz0Icab

— Anya - Chatty lass (@CabbageMittens) November 9, 2016

"We self funded the project until we had some breakthroughs we could commercialise with capital" @ShamaSukul #hardwareAKL

— Hardware Meetup AKL (@HardwareAKL) November 9, 2016

"It cooks like meat, tastes like meat, feels like meat. It's certainly not tofu" @ShamaSukul #hardwareAKL

— Hardware Meetup AKL (@HardwareAKL) November 9, 2016

Incredible #startup success story from Sharna @SunfedMeats about meat from pea proteins - launching next month in NZ @hardwareAKL @GridAKL pic.twitter.com/sQCqZENQNc

— Paul Salisbury (@paulsalis) November 9, 2016

"The bite we like when we eat meat comes from protein, we are using plant proteins to achieve that" @ShamaSukul #hardwareAKL

— Hardware Meetup AKL (@HardwareAKL) November 9, 2016

"The texturisation is difficult to achieve, so that's your IP" @ShamaSukul #hardwareAKL

— Hardware Meetup AKL (@HardwareAKL) November 9, 2016

"When you're on the bleeding edge you bleed, pun intended" 😂 @ShamaSukul #hardwareAKL

— Hardware Meetup AKL (@HardwareAKL) November 9, 2016

At @HardwareAKL & just heard from @SunfedMeats. Obviously impressed everyone here, there is a cue forming to chat to her now #startup pic.twitter.com/vaTgXXrXpf

— BizDojo (@BizDojo) November 9, 2016

Sunfed Meats will be launching their first product soon - "chicken" - and you can follow progress and find stockists through following their Twitter.

Dr Alistair Scarfe

The RAPC was named as a finalist in three categories at this years NZ Innovation Awards, and Alistair was nominated for the Young NZ Innovator of the Year Award.

The crew from @Robotics_Plus are talking about #robotics meets #agriculture from harvesting to packing fruit. @HardwareAKL #tech #innovation pic.twitter.com/7kEMAdKQJh

— GridAKL (@GridAKL) November 9, 2016

"A real focus of ours is capability building, putting together a portfolio of IP" @Robotics_Plus #hardwareAKL

— Hardware Meetup AKL (@HardwareAKL) November 9, 2016

"The pneumatic claw is more gentle than a human hand, people are paid per bin so they often rush" @Robotics_Plus #hardwareAKL

— Hardware Meetup AKL (@HardwareAKL) November 9, 2016

"We are dealing with packhouses in US that alone are bigger than the entire NZ apple packing industry" @Robotics_Plus #hardwareAKL

— Hardware Meetup AKL (@HardwareAKL) November 9, 2016

The floor asks @Robotics_Plus about revenue "with the apple packer we are paid per Apple packed, it's a lease based system" #startup pic.twitter.com/Tmz9rHurnr

— GridAKL (@GridAKL) November 9, 2016

"We're looking at targeted pollination, spraying flowers individually with sugar to get bees to pollinate them" @Robotics_Plus #hardwareAKL

— Hardware Meetup AKL (@HardwareAKL) November 9, 2016

Alistair and the Robotics Plus team are currently looking for mechanical engineers, and people with software development experience with sensor technology. If you think you can help, reach out via email.

Michael Peterson and Daniel Faris

The near silent Ubco is powered by a 40-amp/hour lithium-ion battery, can travel 100km to a charge, and can be fully recharged in six hours at a cost of 88 cents worth of NZ electricity.

The crew from @locusresearch are here to talk about commercialising the ubco - https://t.co/nFamXaEBpa @HardwareAKL #tech #innovation pic.twitter.com/3Jc9us9ADo

— GridAKL (@GridAKL) November 9, 2016

"NZ dairy farm terrain is tough on a global scale and farmers are replacing their bikes annually. That's not cheap" @ubcobikes #hardwareAKL

— Hardware Meetup AKL (@HardwareAKL) November 9, 2016

"We went from prototype to production in a year and a half or so" @locusresearch talking about taking the #ubco from #MVP to #product pic.twitter.com/NxTSUq8pBc

— GridAKL (@GridAKL) November 9, 2016

Gr8 to see UBCO at @HardwareAKL event. Yet ANOTHER #Tauranga gig post #RoboticsPlus presso. #NZAgTech pic.twitter.com/2XnGaCzGUS

— Wharf42 (@wharf42HQ) November 9, 2016

"If you find yourself out in the farm back blocks and need to charge your electric drill you can use the @ubcobikes battery" #hardwareAKL

— Hardware Meetup AKL (@HardwareAKL) November 9, 2016

"We have farmers who are recommending this over the typical farm bike" @locusresearch #ubco "if you can ride a bike you can ride this" #tech pic.twitter.com/WBkkooynuP

— GridAKL (@GridAKL) November 9, 2016

"A charge last 50-100K's but it's affected by terrain & rider style" @ubcobikes #hardwareAKL

— Hardware Meetup AKL (@HardwareAKL) November 9, 2016

The company is currently looking for purchasers for their bikes - they've just clocked 100 sales and are gearing up for global domination. You can find out more, book a test ride or purchase all from the website.

Other pictures from the event

We were very proud to have bought together such a diverse collection of people to meet each other and talk hardware.

If you'd like a copy of any of the below images, please flick us an email. Photography is courtesy of the very talented Sam and her company The Native Creative.

Stay tuned for the next event - Consumer Electronics - happening February 2017. See the full list of themes HERE. And subscribe to the mailing list to receive exclusive updates.

Sponsorships

We're framing up sponsorship packages for both individual events and the full series. Send us an email to enquire about sponsoring these events.