Typically, big data is only found in big land. Commercial farms and huge farms are looking for sensors and software to better manage their fields; but what about the little guys? Today marks the first day of a Kickstarter campaign launch for Edyn, a company creating big data tools to serve even the smallest of farms and gardens.
“Edyn provides a glimpse into what’s happening beneath the surface of your garden–” Edyn founder, ecologist, and soil scientist, Jason Aramburu said. “Minute changes in soil moisture, nutrition and pH, which can have a dramatic effect on your crop yield. Even in small gardens, it’s difficult to get this data without a system like Edyn.”
Today, the startup is launching a Kickstarter campaign with a goal of $100K, which will remain open through July 8th. Aramburu says if successful, the campaign’s funds will allow for the first manufacturing run, with the first units rolling out in December. For a pledge of $129, funders will receive one of the first Garden Sensors manufactured and take part in testing the Beta. (Keep in mind, you can fund any amount; you just won’t get a sensor below $129. Also keep in mind that the regular tier for the garden sensor is $99, and that the $129 tier is to get an early unit.)
Designed to not only sense soil, water and weather conditions, Edyn transmit the data to a phone app to tell you how your garden is doing. Want to know what kind of plants would do well in a particular spot? Edyn will tell you. Want to know if the seeds you planted need watering? They’ve got you covered. Want to water your plants, but don’t have time to be on top of a watering schedule? Edyn will automate watering for you.
While in a prototype-testing phase, Aramburu already raised seed money from angels and Y Combinator, and is partnered with some impressive individuals. For the hardware side, he’s working with Flextronics, a manufacturer of hardware products for big names like Apple and Jawbone. On the software side, he’s got data scientist and software engineer from Princeton and Harvard, Paul Cowgill, on his team, and partnered with Yves Behar and Fuseproject, the creators of Jawbone and OUYA, among others.
With a solid team, and already about 20 percent of its fundraising goal pledged, Edyn appears to be well on its way to bringing your small garden a little more tech and a lot more info than ever before.
