Amber Agriculture

Amber Agriculture Inc. is an agricultural technology company based in Chicago, Illinois, that develops wireless sensor systems for monitoring and managing the condition of crops in storage. Its products send data to a phone or web application, allowing farmers to track grain quality and act before grain moves out of specification. The company was built out of the University of Illinois and serves customers primarily in the United States.

The current product line centers on the ACE AIR Kit, which combines an "Analyzer" module that issues predictive alerts on grain condition and an "Automator" module that controls bin fans. The system is positioned as a cable-free alternative to conventional temperature-cable installations: it is wireless and solar-charged, and installation involves drilling a hole at the top of a bin, dropping in the sensor and plugging the hole, a process the company says takes about nine minutes. Sensing includes CO2 detection to catch grain degradation early, alongside moisture and temperature conditions. Earlier and related technology includes a wireless, kernel-like sensor designed to travel with grain through the supply chain, and a radio-frequency puck about the size of a key fob that can be inserted into a bag of grain and read at points along the chain.

Amber states it holds a United States patent, has received federal funding through the National Science Foundation, and shares two NSF grants with Iowa State University. It reports multi-year ACE AIR deployments on research farms (five and seven years), installations at Purdue research farms, a Kent Feed Mill and Grain Science Complex, and a Feed Technology Center, plus a decade of original R&D and supporting grain science research.

Founding story

Cofounder Lucas Frye grew up on a sixth-generation grain farm in Mason County, Illinois, studied agricultural economics and pursued an MBA at the University of Illinois, served on the university's Board of Trustees as a student representative, and worked across seed production, agricultural lending and agribusiness strategy consulting. During a consulting engagement with a US commodity association, he interviewed roughly 100 people across the grain industry about differentiating American grain, and found that successive five-year reports had reached the same conclusions without the industry acting on them. In his final year on campus he met cofounder Joseph (Joey) Varikooty at a hackathon weekend. Varikooty grew up in New Jersey, worked as an instrumentation engineer at a Rockefeller University neurobiology lab while in high school, double majored in electrical engineering and bioengineering at the University of Illinois, and worked on Fitbit's R&D team in machine vision and remote biometric sensing before leaving school as a Thiel Fellow. A hackathon project led by Varikooty evolved into Amber Agriculture.

Business model

Amber sells grain-storage hardware kits directly to farmers, with online ordering, published shipping timelines of about 10 days and phone-based sales and support lines. The product pairs on-bin sensing hardware with a web/app interface for alerts and fan control, and third-party classification of the company describes recurring software revenue alongside the hardware. Promotional discount codes are offered through the website.

Hardware sales of the ACE AIR Kit ordered online, with associated web/app monitoring; a third-party classification characterizes revenue as recurring with a software component.

Traction

Amber cites thousands of sensor deployments with farmers and industry, seven harvests of practice, 14 technology iterations, an 8.8 average farmer product review score, ACE AIR units running for five and seven years on research farms, one international export deployment, and installations at Purdue research farms, a Kent Feed Mill and Grain Science Complex, and a Feed Technology Center. One customer reports having installed ten units himself. A third-party research page lists eight employees as of February 2024.

Latest developments

Recent items highlighted by the company include new ACE AIR installations at a Kent Feed Mill and Grain Science Complex and at a Feed Technology Center, continued deployment on university research farms including Purdue, a shared pair of National Science Foundation grants with Iowa State University, and a first international export deployment. Amber also reports 14 technology iterations and seven harvests of field practice, and markets the ACE AIR Kit as the only device on the market with its combination of features. A third-party company research page lists eight employees as of February 2024.