Silvia Naishtat
06/29/2021 8:40 PM
Clarín.com
Economy
Updated 06/29/2021 8:40 PM
When they were all under 30 and bees were missing in the fields, in a 2016 that today seems distant, a business administrator (Matías Viel) and two researchers (Pedro Negri and Agustín Sáez) joined in a
start up that they named Beeflow
with an idea disruptive. It occurred to them that they could
train bees not only to increase performance in honey production.
Also, to improve the
pollination of plants
. From that moment everything was vertiginous and they were jumping from one milestone to another. This Tuesday and despite an Argentina disqualified for investment funds, they
received US $ 8.3 million.
The investment was led by Ospraie Ag Science and accompanied by Steve Jurvetson of Future Ventures who is
also a director of Tesla and SpaceX
.
They were joined by Jeff Wilke, former CEO of
Amazon's
Worldwide Consumer
.
Quite an indication since they are star investors who summon others.
Beeflow's pollination technologies and knowledge are said to help farmers
improve yields of crops like blueberries and almonds by up to 90%
.
And they also reduce the death rate of bees, which are essential for biodiversity and sustainable agriculture, by up to 70%.
Milagros Graziani, an agronomist who develops as a New Business Manager at Beeflow.
Beeflow is currently based in Los Angeles and Buenos Aires and is working with Driscoll's,
the largest producer of berries in the US
.
to maximize the size and quantity of fruits per plant.
They are also concerned with
improving the production of hybrid vegetable seeds
and reducing the incidence of diseases associated with poor pollination.
The importance of bees
"We are very excited to work with investors who believe that bees will play a very important role in the transition to a more regenerative and sustainable agricultural system," said Matias Viel, founder and CEO of Beeflow.
“Pollination
was a forgotten topic by the agricultural industry.
But now bee-friendly practices are becoming standard for the food supply chain, "he added.
Beeflow has the scientific contribution of Walter Farina, an Argentine researcher who
dedicates his life to studying the brain and communication of bees
.
Farina leads a scientific team that developed a technology that allows
bees to be trained to pollinate specific flowers.
They also use
plant-based nutritional supplements
that impact the pollinating activity of bees, for example, in the number of flights they make to the flowers of the crop.
One of its technologies helps bees improve pollination by up to 7 times in colder temperatures.
"Bees are responsible for
pollinating 70% of crops globally
and play an extremely important role in our food supply chain, but few are truly aware of their relevance to the yield of agricultural crops," he concludes. Viel.
This statement is key when
many of the 20,000 species of bees on the planet are on the verge of extinction.