A group of students at the University of Washington are launching a startup that helps farmers monitor and upkeep their fertilizer volumes.
Warren Weissbluth and Ronan Nopp founded Freyr, a startup developing a dashboard that tracks fertilizer levels on farms with plans to build an autonomous plane for soil dispersal. The team recently competed in the 2023 Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Challenge, winning the grand prize of $15,000 to grow the business.
Fertilizer can be washed away into nearby waterways during rain events and when snow melts, or seep into groundwater over time. When the fertilizer gets into water ways, it can kill the aquatic life, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Freyr is pitching a tool that eliminates fertilizer waste on industrial corn and grain farms. The goal is to create a system that applies fertilizer exactly when and where crops need it, limiting the probability it becomes toxic runoff in waterways.
Nopp, an electrical engineering student, stumbled on the idea after reading “How the World Really Works” by Vaclav Smil. The book detailed the process of food production, highlighting some of the issues pertaining to widespread fertilizer use on farms and their surrounding environments.
Nopp brought the idea to Weissbluth in November. Weissbluth, an engineering student active in UW’s entrepreneurial programs, helped recruit other members for the team and develop the business plan.
The student-run startup is currently in the process of developing its minimum viable product. The goal is to build a dashboard that uses seed, soil, infrared, weather and topography data to determine what areas need fertilizer.
The long-term plan is to engineer an autonomous aircraft with a 20-foot wingspan and a 1,000-pound payload capacity to spread fertilizer over large farm plots. Aerial farm equipment lets farmers avoid traditional obstacles like mud and crop patches, Weissbluth said.
A challenge for Freyr will be convincing customers they need a software platform to monitor fertilizer volumes. After 47 customer discovery interviews, the team learned “farmers don’t believe they are losing much fertilizer,” Weissbluth said.
The student-run startup received some critical feedback. Some say the product is an “over-engineered solution” to the fertilizer issue, and “precision fertilizer application has already peaked,” Weissbluth said.
“We’ve scrutinized our idea heavily, and we’ve attempted to make sure our product development timeline is as feasible as possible, starting with the core idea of increasing the frequency of fertilizer application on non-irrigated corn farms,” he said.
There are a number of companies developing solutions in similar verticals. OneSoil, which landed $5 million in 2021, sells GPS and satellite-powered monitoring tech to help farmers gauge seed and fertilizer levels. Autonomous plane startup Pyka, which raised $37 million in April 2022, showcased abilities to spray herbicide over agricultural plots with its Pelican aircraft.
Seattle-based DroneSeed disperses seeds in areas affected by wildfires using drones.
Freyr’s planes will be guided by its software platform, Weissbluth said. They’ll also feature “a unique aerodynamic configuration” that reduces the engineering requirements necessary to deploy “extremely high payloads of fertilizer,” he said.
Freyr is using the prize money to continue building out its software platform. It plans to test out its product at various farms in the summer, using a tractor to deliver the fertilizer when and where the software determines it’s needed.
