Opportunity for:

• Deep tech, agricultural, angel, VC, family office or institutional investors.
• Investors interested in scaling connectivity solutions that enable the adoption of precision agriculture in rural communities.
• Strategic distribution partners to scale the business through enterprise sales channels. 
• Farmers interested in or using IoT and smart farming solutions for collaboration in on-farm trials.
  ^This opportunity is only for professional and sophisticated investors.

Opportunity description

Industry challenge:

Farming is a major industry that spans over half of the world's habitable land, but many rural areas suffer from poor internet coverage resulting in a patchy distribution of connectivity known as "Salt and Pepper coverage." Improving internet connectivity is crucial for boosting productivity in the farming sector, as it enables the use of cutting-edge technologies such as autonomous vehicles, IoT devices, and remote sensors.

Mirragin - Project Isidore (Isidore) has developed a "Cell on Wings" solution to tackle this issue. This uses either a tethered drone or a balloon as an aerial platform to deploy a communications device at a height of 120 meters. By doing so, the team at Isidore can overcome the curvature of the earth and establish a line of sight to the nearest cell tower, allowing for internet connectivity with a coverage radius of 20 kilometres in the local area. This innovative solution provides a reliable and cost-effective means of bringing internet connectivity to rural communities and enhancing the productivity of the farming industry.

Current opportunity:

Isidore is seeking investment partners for their $500k funding round to drive their growth and expansion. The company is looking for investors with an interest in:

• The agricultural technologies sector (including grains, horticulture, and farm machinery) and who are seeking to extend the application of rural connectivity technology across multiple sectors and applications.
• Innovative and transformative precision agriculture solutions for the agriculture industry.

Isidore is also looking for strategic partners to scale their business through enterprise sales channels including telecommunications and smart machinery providers.

Isidore are looking for expressions of interest from farmers who are using or interested in IoT or Smart Farming solutions, and who have poor connection, for on-farm trials.

Opportunity background:

Over the last 6 months Isidore has developed two products one being a tethered balloon called the ‘Attunga Hotspot’ and the other being a tethered Uncrewed Air Vehicle (UAV). Both devises work on the principle of using height to overcome the curvature of the earth and enable the transmission of LTE/4G/5G or WiFi signal over a large previously un-serviced area.

Both systems have been designed to operate either through the public backhaul network (existing telecommunications infrastructure) or through private networks with backhaul provided by satellite backhaul interface. Both devices can be attached to moving vehicle such as a tractor or mining earth mover and can carry additional payloads such as camera or LiDAR units to collect additional data such as weed or topographical mapping. By utilising power over fibre we are able to overcome the short flight times of multirotor UAV’s and stay airborne for up to 12 hours at a time. By using a tether there are no piloting requirements from the regulator that would normally be required for UAV operations.

Potential other applications:

Isidore’s primary concern is resolving the Salt & Pepper connectivity issue in Agriculture, however, a low-cost and fast solution for connectivity has potential in various other industries facing similar issues. These industries include Mining, Defence, safety and rescue (first responders), large public events, education, and transportation which have not been adequately served by existing technologies. Minimal modifications are required to extend the platform to these different industries, offering a huge potential for rapid scalability after successful trials in Agriculture.