CRESTON – An emerging startup focused on improving health outcomes for honeybees, HiveTracks, has raised nearly $170,000 in 2021 thus far, and plans to raise more ahead of a key product launch slotted for June.

Founder James Wilkes, who is also a professor of computer science at Appalachian State University as well as a beekeeper and farmer, launched the company in 2010. He’s using computing to drive positive outcomes for honeybees and all the stakeholders who rely on bees as a pollinator for agricultural food systems globally.

The company brought on two new executives in 2020, Laura Dye as COO, and Max Rünzel as CEO, to drive the company forward toward a major product release, raising capital to do so. 

HiveTracks also has revamped its technology stack, said Dye in an interview with WRAL TechWire, and plans to launch an app next month.

HiveTracks helps beekeepers keep healthier bees, said Dye, by leveraging emerging cloud-, app-, and data-supported technologies.

In doing so, the company equips beekeepers with easy-to-use tools as they navigate the increasingly complex landscape of honey bee health, said Dye, noting as an example the company’s B2C Beekeeping Companion, which “sends context-sensitive notifications to our users on when to inspect, treat or feed their hives based on weather conditions, the hive’s environment and surrounding beekeepers’ actions.”

The company brought on $60,000 from friends and family in a round that closed in February, said Dye, which set the stage to validate the company and its plans ahead of additional investors pouring in about another $110,000, according to the latest SEC filing.

HiveTracks plans to close this bridge round later this summer, said Dye.

The company is already generating revenue, using a Software-as-a-Service model to sell its Beekeeper’s Companion application to individual hobbyist beekeepers on an annual subscription basis.

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Dye noted the company also sells multi-user licenses to beekeeping organizations and to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and government agencies to deliver beekeeping solutions across the globe, particularly in the region known as the “Global South.” 

The firm currently works with the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) to equip women beekeepers in Ethiopia and Uzbekistan to improve their livelihoods through app-supported beekeeping, said Dye.

It’s been an exciting year of growth, said Dye, and the company plans to use its funding and product launch to further drive adoption of its technology.  “On a broader level, we are looking at bee and environmental health across a region,” she said. “Hence, we monitor how the health of bees under our management changes over time and what impact healthier bees have on the livelihoods of our users, particularly in Ethiopia and Uzbekistan.”

“We are only successful if we make a positive impact on the bees, beekeepers, and their local agri-food systems,” she added. 

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