Listen to this articleBelow is our recent interview with Allison Kopf, Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Data Products at iUNU:
Q: Allison, can you tell us something more about your company history and your mission?
A: iUNU was founded in 2013 and is based in Seattle, Washington. We believe that the world is under-greenhoused and as production begins to rapidly move indoors, growers are relying on technology to empower data-driven decisionmaking. Proactive production leads to more efficient production, less risky operations, and more stable, safe, sustainable produce on our tables. iUNU builds technology to enable this data-driven decisionmaking in your greenhouse or vertical farm. Our core platform LUNA uses computer vision and artificial intelligence, coupled with our cultivaiton management software to drive higher yields, reduce waste, and easily manage your team and operation in one place.
Q: Any highlights on your recent announcement?
A: iUNU’s LUNA was recently selected as the computer vision and artificial intelligence platform to run Pure Green Farms’ operation in South Bend, Indiana. Pure Green Farms recently received investment from Taylor Farms, the leading North American producer of salads and healthy fresh foods with over 122,200 acres of field grown products and 16 salad producing facilities across North America. Pure Green Farms operates one of the most efficient, automated greenhouse systems and selected iUNU to provide artificial intelligence and computer vision technology to automate operations and steer better crop performance at scale. Growers at Pure Green Farms have already begun utilizing components of LUNA such as Time Travel to improve crop health. In one instance, growers in South Bend collaborated with iUNU remotely through LUNA to identify issues in the facility and take immediate action based on actionable data and in-field observations. LUNA helps growers scout remotely and Time Travel allows growers and crop consultants to go back in time to see every plant at any point in time. This ensures there is no ambiguity as to when issues arise and what happened in the past to correctly root cause.
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Q: Can you give us more insights into your offering?
A: LUNA uses computer vision and artificial intelligence to augment the growing team in daily operations. Computer vision can often detect issues before humans can, and together with our horticulture team, we work together to use technolgy to drive better decisionmaking. LUNA combines the best of both technology and human knowlege. LUNA can help growers automate inventory tracking, a process that requires a lot of labor and is done infrequently. Today, that process is low value. With automation, it becomes incredibly high value. With automation, growers know exactly what plants are in which area and how they are doing. With LUNA artificial intelligence, they can spot disease or pests before they become an issue and can provide accurate readiness to their sales teams. LUNA becomes a core part of your growing team.
Q: What can we expect from your company in next 6 months? What are your plans?
A: We’re focused on continuing to drive value for our customers and scaling aggressively across more greenhouse acreage. To support this, we’re actively hiring people across the organization and we’d love to hear from anyone interested in learning more.
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Q: What is the best thing about your company that people might not know about?
A: Working in agriculture is incredibly rewarding. As engineers and technologists, we have the opportunity to work on incredibly tangible and meaningful problems facing a recession-proof and fundamentally necessary supply chain, food. To that end, something folks might not know about our team is that we have over a century of horticultural experience on our team. It’s a unique opportunity to learn directly from the industry if you’re interested in agriculture and new to the field.
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