Empowering beekeeping through physical AI.
Hardware and software for commercial apiaries and farms. Pilots deployed in CT, NY, and CA. Customer interest validated. Seeking investment to scale into the $107B precision agriculture IoT market.
Bees feed the world. But bees are dying faster than food demand is growing.
US beekeepers lose about 40% of their colonies a year (48% in 2023). Replacement costs run $2.5B+ globally. The workforce is aging. The median commercial beekeeper is 66, and 79% use no digital management tools at all. The industry is ready for a reset.
Physical AI for every hive.
Watches every bee in and out
Off-the-shelf compute. Solar plus LTE for remote yards. Drops in under standard 10-frame Langstroth boxes. No custom hive bodies.
YOLOv11 on 20k+ field images
Tracks colony activity in real time. Detects mites at 1 to 1.5mm, africanization markers, and missing-queen indicators. Cloud inference today, central GPU on the roadmap.
Hive-level alerts, multi-yard views
Designed with beekeeper input. Actionable insights over complex graphs. Recordkeeping, harvest logging, supply ordering integrated.
Margin uplift on a 5,000-colony yard.
| Traditional management | With PollenPal | |
|---|---|---|
| Hive loss rate | 40% | 10% |
| Revenue | $1,200k | $1,425k |
| Hive replacement costs | ($400k) | ($100k) |
| Total costs | ($1,000k) | ($813k) |
| Total Margin | $200k | $613k |
PollenPal cost not included. Source: Beekeeper interviews, USDA NASS honey report, ABJ, Bee Informed Partnership, PollenPal analysis.
Pilot-ready and proven in the field.
Accuracy and deployability. Not one or the other.
Precision agriculture IoT is a $107B market.
PollenPal starts in US hive management and expands into broader pest detection and pollination verification across orchards, vineyards, and greenhouses.
Precision Crop Protection
IoT, intervention marketplace, pollination verification, and precision application OS.
Crop Monitoring + Treatment
Pest detection across orchards, vineyards, and greenhouses plus treatment sales.
US Hive Management
PollenPal hardware and software subscriptions sold to US beekeepers.
Two channels to unlock scale with low CAC.
Corporate Managed Beekeeping
Corporate beekeeping platforms manage hives across 24+ US cities for corporate clients. PollenPal adds continuous monitoring between beekeeper visits, enabling a premium tech-enabled service tier.
Honey & Pollinator Brands
Honey and pollinator-focused brands depend on healthy, sustainable hives with supply chain traceability. PollenPal monitors their supply chain apiaries, and the brand subsidizes the cost.
From threat detection to autonomous response.
Threat Detection
Varroa, africanization, and queen issues caught the day they appear.
Insightful Recommendations
Treatment timing, yard-level trends, and crew dispatch.
Autonomous Response
Closing the loop with in-hive interventions.
Deep tech and apiary expertise.
Robert Schulte
Ex-BCG, Columbia MBA. UF engineering. 17+ years beekeeping experience. Spent the summer of 2025 interviewing commercial operators across the US.
Daniel Drew
Spacecraft Manufacturing Engineer at Apex Space. Ex-Blue Origin. UF engineering. 9-year partnership with Robert.
Tech Team
1 Columbia Research Scientist (computer vision, backed by Google + NVIDIA). 4 Columbia engineering students building the ML pipeline and web app through Columbia Build Lab.
Beekeeping Team
4 Master Beekeeper advisors providing guidance on hive management and treatment protocols. Commercial beekeeper partners deploying devices and contributing field data.
Interested in learning more?
We're seeking seed investment to scale our 2026 commercial pilots and accelerate the data flywheel.