INDIGO Agrícola pionero en fumigación con drones en Costa Rica
INDIGO Agrícola es la primera empresa en Centroamerica que utiliza la tecnología de sistemas automáticos aéreos para fumigar plaguicidas o fertilizantes, reduciendo agua y tiempo de aplicación.
INDIGO Agrícola es la primera empresa en Centroamerica que comercializa la tecnología de drones para fumigar insumos agrícolas, reduciendo agua y tiempo de aplicación.
A continuación un video que se hizo de la primera demostración en público del drone DJI Agras MG1 en la feria de CooproNaranjo 2017.
El video se filmó con un Mavic Pro.
Costa Rica debe apostar a la agricultura inteligente
Hoy en día la tecnología brinda opciones de optimización en diferentes campos y la agricultura no tiene por qué ser la excepción. Contamos con herramientas tecnológicas que permiten la optimización de la cadena de valor.
En el 2014, la agricultura representó 4% del Producto Interno bruto (PIB) mundial y un 9% del PIB de Costa Rica. Esta industria, representativa por su tamaño y su impacto social, ha sido un emblema costarricense por muchos años.
Sin embargo, al tener que lidiar con diversas variables como las variaciones del clima, enfermedades y costos asociados, la agricultura es una industria sumamente vulnerable.
Hoy en día la tecnología brinda opciones de optimización en diferentes campos y la agricultura no tiene por qué ser la excepción.
Contamos con herramientas tecnológicas que permiten la optimización de la cadena de valor.
Por ejemplo, en la siembra de café, según datos de la FAO la enfermedad conocida como la roya resultó en un costo económico de $600 millones para los agricultores centroamericanos en el 2013.
Con herramientas tecnológicas modernas, ese costo se pudo haber reducido en un 25%.
Estas herramientas son parte de la llamada agricultura inteligente. Software , drones y sensores son algunas de las herramientas que se utilizan.
Actores importantes como Dupont ya invierten una porción considerable en la investigación de en este tipo de tecnologías.
A nivel mundial, los inversionistas en capital de riesgo están apostando a esta tecnología.
La inversión pasó de $400 millones en el 2010 a $4.600 millones en el 2015, con un aumento anual de 166% en el 2014 y de 92% en el 2015.
Por su parte, Precision Hawk –una de las compañías a la vanguardia en este tipo de tecnologías a nivel mundial– ha logrado obtener $29 millones en capital de inversión privada desde su fundación en el 2011.
Esta empresa se encuentra expandiéndose por toda Latinoamérica y ya cuentan con presencia en Costa Rica.
La agricultura inteligente tiene la capacidad de convertirse en el motor que Costa Rica necesita para avanzar en el camino de un desarrollo sostenible.
POR JULIO NAVARRO - 20 AGOSTO 2016
Profits Are Not Enough: 11 Impactful Startups that You Should Know About
Profits Are Not Enough: 11 Impactful Startups that You Should Know About. Sergio Ballester, a Graduate of the Costa Rica Founder Institute, is the founder and CEO of Indigo Drones, which was launched in 2014. Indigo Drones has designed a specialized drone that uses machine learning software for aerial mapping and crop monitoring, helping farmers improve their profits by increasing yields and reducing inputs, and helping the environment by preventing water wastage and overuse of fertilizers.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25TH, 2017
Profits Are Not Enough: 11 Impactful Startups that You Should Know About
Entrepreneurship is not fun and games, and as an early-stage entrepreneur, non-stop work and rejection will become your new normal.
If there’s one thing we have learned over seven years at the Founder Institute, with over 2000 companies launched, it is this:
In order to power through the hard times of entrepreneurship, money cannot be a founder’s main source of motivation.
As Elon Musk once famously said, “Being an entrepreneur is like eating glass and staring into the abyss of death.” Only the most passionate founders will survive.
As a result, in the Founder Institute’s application process, we don’t require that applicants share their startup ideas with us (we focus on founders more than companies). However, one question that we do ask, and that we do take very seriously, is this:
Why do you want to be an entrepreneur?
This is one of our favorite questions to ask, because if you don’t have a good reason ‘why’ you are building a company, you will never have a good “what.” For example, if you don’t have a good ‘why’, you will have a very hard time surviving the challenges, developing a strong vision for the business, and pitching the business to potential team members, customers, and investors. It will be easy for people to see that your “heart” is not in the company.
The Founder Institute will host an Impactful Company Demo Day on January 31. Register now!
Luckily, for every entrepreneur trying to make a quick buck, we have seen nearly as many entrepreneurs trying to build a potentially impactful company. Check out some of the companies tackling large problems from across the globe below:
Indigo Drones
Sergio Ballester, a Graduate of the Costa Rica Founder Institute, is the founder and CEO of Indigo Drones, which was launched in 2014. Indigo Drones has designed a specialized drone that uses machine learning software for aerial mapping and crop monitoring, helping farmers improve their profits by increasing yields and reducing inputs, and helping the environment by preventing water wastage and overuse of fertilizers. As the application of traditional agricultural methods in tropical areas wastes too many resources, increases costs for farmers, and is harmful for the environment, Ballester has set out to help farmers move into the digital age of precision agriculture with his unique product. Ballester’s efforts have not gone unnoticed, as he was listed as an “Innovator Under 35” by the MIT Technology Review.
Udemy
Udemy is one of the world’s largest online learning platforms, where more than 10 million people currently take courses in everything from programming to yoga to photography and everything in between. Founded by Silicon Valley Founder Institute Graduates Gagan Biyani and Eren Bali in 2009, Udemy features over 40,000 courses, each taught by an experienced instructor and available on demand so users can learn at their own pace, at any time, and on any device. Since its inception, Udemy has raised considerable funding which it plans to use to continue its global expansion. At the moment, Udemy provides courses in about 80 languages, and nearly two-thirds of its seven million users are from outside the U.S.
“We believe education should be open for everyone, not just people who can afford an expensive device.” – Gagan Biyani
MakerBloks
Launched in 2014 upon graduation of the Montreal Founder Institute by Francois Poirier, MakerBloks develops color-coded building blocks that introduce children to the world of electronics. With a uniquely versatile design, MakerBloks enables children to build real electronic circuits, lie detectors, burglar alarms, keyboard, memory games, and much more. What sets MakerBloks apart, if not above, other educational toys is that it combines physical building blocks with a storytelling app that encourages kids to build with their hands. The company has won numerous awards and titles since launching, including Winner of TechCrunch Montreal’s Pitch-Off 2015 and the Editor’s Choice Blue Ribbon at Maker Faire Bay Area 2015, among others.
“The best advice I could give to any to anyone who wants to launch a startup is do one thing and do it right. Don’t get lost in features.” – Francois Poirier
Ovamba
Ovamba, a Graduate of the Johannesburg Founder Institute, was created to support Central African economies by improving access to credit for the small and medium enterprise (sme) market. Co-founded by FI Grad Marvin R.R. Cole in 2013, Ovamba’s mission is to reduce the cost and complexity that is commonly associated with the traditional banking system, and pass the savings onto its members and borrowers.
In a study conducted last year, Nigeria was revealed to be the world’s most attractive frontier market for investors, followed by Kenya and Ghana. Ovamba hopes to capitalize on this growing interest in investment opportunities in Africa, and with over $1 million in funding raised so far, continues to expand across the continent while providing additional loan and investment resources.
TapGenes
Founded by current CEO Heather Holmes in 2013, TapGenes takes a personalized approach to health, turning a user’s family health information into easy-to-understand preventative medicine, and helps manage chronic conditions and fight diseases before they happen. Holmes was inspired to launch the company after her father became very ill and her family faced numerous challenges to share his family medical history that impacted his treatment. While genetic testing continues to be a controversial subject, that hasn’t stopped TapGenes’ success, as the company recently won the top prize at the RootsTech Innovator Showdown, one of the top innovator contests in the world.
“We see ourselves as a connector, empowering consumers and their families and connecting them to the right services or help that they might need.” – Heather Holmes
Energyly
Energyly was founded by Dayal Nathan in 2013 and is a Graduate of the Bangalore Founder Institute. Formerly eMeter, Energyly employs energy analytics to help businesses, offices, and homes reduce their power cost with a simple user interface at an affordable price, to help increase productivity and profits. The company’s app works by first entering specific data, which then produces detailed energy analytics of power consumed and a prediction of electricity to be consumed for the next five years, even offering month-on-month and year-on-year comparisons. As energy consumption continues to be a hot topic in sustainability discussion, Energyly’s product is a welcome solution to a pervasive problem, and their efforts have won them a “Best Startup – Energy” Award by CII Startupreneurs and “Best Utility App” Award by Global Mobile App Summit & Awards.
ProSehat
Founded in 2015 by Gregorius Bimantoro, ProSehat is currently developing an online marketplace to help health consumers conveniently find and buy original products from a network of trusted pharmacies with online prescription from doctors and a user’s drug records. This Graduate of the Jakarta Founder Institute is on a mission to fill a major gap in the local Indonesian pharmacy marketplace. However, before even conceiving the idea for ProSehat, Bimantoro, himself a medical doctor, delved into the medical tech industry when he helped launch the medical Q&A site Tanyadok, which he describes as “a Quora for doctors”, and features content provided by lecturers and graduates. Despite having only launched last year, ProSehat is already making a name for itself in the startup industry, and was the grand prize winner of Seedstars Jakarta in September of 2015.
GoFar
GoFar was founded by Danny Adams, a Graduate of the Sydney Founder Institute, in 2013. The company has produced a simple device that gives drivers feedback about their driving efficiency, designed to help organisations nudge their drivers towards safer and more efficient driving styles, with the ultimate goal of no wasted fuel and zero accidents. Originally conceived by Adams, himself an experienced engineer, GoFar creates personalised coaching programmes that train drivers to improve and motivates drivers with a unique mix of financial and non-financial incentives to apply their new skills in a manner that’s safe for both the driver and the environment.
“The advice I’d now give any other tech entrepreneur is to be aware of the startup ecosystem in their city and take full advantage of it from early on.” – Danny Adams
2Houses
2houses is a web platform designed to help divorced parents communicate with one another about what is the most important in their lives: their children. Founded by Gill Ruidant, a Graduate of the Brussels Founder Institute, 2houses’ unique service allows parents who are no longer married, living together or romantically involved, to deal with arrangements that can be complicated for separated parents, including organizing child custody, sharing reports about school and medical information, and tracking expenses. As a divorced parent himself, Ruidant is aware of how split guardians try their best to avoid the personal tension, stress, discussions and arguments that so often come with divorce, and has used his personal experiences to build a platform that allows separated parents to communicate online on a neutral platform rather than talking face-to-face or over the phone.
AllCanCode
AllCanCode is a Graduate of the Athens Founder Institute, and was founded by Kostas Karolemeas in 2014. Designed for both kids and adults (but mostly kids), AllCanCode builds adventure games for web and mobile applications that teach users how to code, building professional skills on in the process. Employing a graphical programming language involving building blocks instead of an awkward syntax and a built-in guide that teaches the user the art of programming, kids can actually write code while playing fun and entertaining games. Last October, AllCanCode was selected as one of six winners of the third “Learning Innovation Hub (iHub) Pitch Games” held at Adobe Systems, by the Silicon Valley Education Foundation (SVEF).
“Computers are the machines that empower our minds. Producing more developers is not the solution. We need to teach everyone how to solve computational problems without a developer.” – Kostas Karolemeas
Girltank
Women are, unfortunately, too often left out in the world of entrepreneurship. However, it was exactly this situation that motivated Tara Roberts, a Graduate of the Santiago Founder Institute, to launch Girltank in 2012. After traveling and interviewing women around the world, Roberts discovered that there was no global network to support tech-minded women across borders. To address this, Roberts co-founded Girltank, a community hub and storytelling platform designed to support female social entrepreneurs from around the world. It turns out that this was a good idea, as Girltank has since gone on to receive numerous awards and accolades, including the Daily Beast/Newsweek-Toyota-Women in the World Foundation’s Women of Impact $50,000 award, and the Youtopia Grant.
“I believe it’s time for a woman-led movement to change the world focused on principals like compassion, cooperation, and empathy.” – Tara Roberts
The Founder Institute Costa Rica
Seis emprendedores se gradúan de The Founder Institute Costa Rica
Del programa nacieron empresas que brindan soluciones en diversos campos: médico, agricultura, diseño, mercadeo y en la predicción de costos para las empresas.
PRIMERA GENERACIÓN
Seis emprendedores se gradúan de The Founder Institute Costa Rica
Del programa nacieron empresas que brindan soluciones en diversos campos: médico, agricultura, diseño, mercadeo y en la predicción de costos para las empresas.
POR JOANNA NELSON ULLOA / pymes@elfinancierocr.com / 13 FEB 2015, 02:37 PM
PYMES / 13 FEB 2015 /CARLOS GONZÁLEZ PARA EF
Sergio Ballester, Laura Barillas, Laura Loáiciga, Eric de La Goublaye de Menorval, Leopoldo Martínez y Pablo Vásquez (ausente en la foto) forman parte de la primera generación que se graduó de The Founder Institute en Costa Rica.
Luego de 16 semanas de entrenamiento y de un proceso de interacción con mentores y expertos, seis emprendedores se graduaron del programa de capacitación para crear empresas tecnológicas de The Founder Institute, ubicado en Sillicon Valley, y que inició oficialmente en Costa Rica en octubre del año pasado.
Según Vivian Arias, codirectora de The Founder Institute Costa Rica, 104 personas aplicaron al programa, de las cuales fueron elegidas 56 y, posteriormente, se inscribieron 26.
De esos 26, llegaron hasta el final del proceso 6, quienes ya tienen lista su empresa.
Arias manifestó que ahora se dedicarán a darle seguimiento a los emprendimientos, con el fin de que puedan desarrollarse plenamente.
El pasado jueves 12 de febrero, en las instalaciones del Edificio Otoya 1155, los graduandos hicieron una presentación de sus nuevas empresas y productos.
Indigo Drones
Sergio Ballester es un ingeniero industrial y gerente general de una empresa de agroquímicos.
A raíz de las plagas y enfermedades que enfrentan cultivos como la piña, que generan ineficiencias y altos costos, él decidió crear un negocio de agricultura de precisión, que trabaja con el uso de diversas tecnologías para optimizar esos cultivos.
Específicamente, su empresa utilizará drones (que son vehículos aéreos no tripulados), que toman fotografías de los cultivos para conocer su estado.
"Con mapeos aéreos utilizamos sensores infrarojos y cámaras de alta resolución con las que podemos obtener imágenes que nos determinan diferentes variables que podemos luego interpretar de diferentes formas", explicó.
La idea es que el agricultor tenga información de sus cultivos para tomar decisiones acertadas en torno a su empresa.
Ballester cuenta con el apoyo de expertos en agronomía, finanzas y robótica.
deLaGuayaba
Otro de los emprendedores que se graduó es Eric de La Goublaye de Menorval. Él creó su empresa deLaGuayaba (el nombre se origina de su largo apellido) y desarrolló un software llamado Oasis, cuyo propósito es predecir costos y tiempos de los proyectos empresariales para que los negocios sean más eficientes.
La idea es que, a partir de los resultados y mediciones, se puedan efectuar mejoras.
El creador manifestó que con su producto las empresas no tienen que trabajar a "prueba y error", sino con datos que les permitan tomar decisiones con el fin de incrementar la productividad.
Eric trabajó en Intel por nueve años y, tras salir de la empresa, tomó la decisión de emprender.
A pesar del corto tiempo que tiene su emprendimiento, ya está viendo los frutos de su trabajo.
El ingeniero electrónico contó que su empresa ya cuenta con cuatro clientes y en su negocio trabajan cuatro personas.
Mimedtics
Una de las empresas que surgió se llama Mimedtics, cuyo campo de trabajo es el diseño de dispositivos médicos en el área ortopédica con el uso de tecnología 3D, creada por el ingeniero electrónico Leopoldo Martínez y por la ingeniera electromecánica Laura Barillas.
Uno de sus productos es una férula de inmovilización, para usarse cuando se presentan fracturas de muñeca.
Al realizar su investigación, se dieron cuenta de lo común que son las fracturas y de cómo los yesos que se colocan generalmente son incómodos, causan picazón y mal olor.
Su producto pretende evitar esos problemas.
Exposé
Laura Loáiciga es una diseñadora de producto, quien estudió diseño industrial en Estados Unidos.
Ella percibió que en Costa Rica se le da poco valor al diseño y que alcanzar éxito en esa área a veces es un poco difícil.
Por ello, decidió crear una plataforma digital de apoyo al diseñador denominada Exposé.
Su propósito es que los diseñadores se den a conocer a sí mismos y sus proyectos.
Además, pretende otorgar capacitación por Internet y que sea interactiva.
Exposé funciona con un modelo de suscripción, según las necesidades del diseñador.
Dinatrac
Otro de los estudiantes graduados es Pablo Vásquez, quien creó la empresa Dinatrac.
Ignacio Castro, codirector de The Founder Institute Costa Rica, explicó que se trata de una herramienta para hacer el mercadeo de las empresas más eficiente.