Turning bees and AI into a business model

Hivesound simply listens to bees to draw conclusions about their health. To this end, Dr. Michelle Maurer, Julian Obrecht and Kevin Kraus have developed an AI tool that analyzes the buzzing and uses the sound frequencies to identify how the swarm is doing. Will it swarm out soon? Has the colony lost its queen? Are the bees stressed because of an infection or intruders? The system detects anomalies early giving beekeepers valuable information. And the market is growing. "Beekeeping and apiculture have increased significantly worldwide. In 2021, FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) put the total number of bee colonies at 101.6 million in 2021," according to the German Federal Statistical Office.

Honey bees are vital pollinators for food production and preserving biodiversity. Around 25 per cent of all existing honey bee colonies are managed in Europe. However, their health is increasingly at risk from pesticides, the spread of the Varroa mite and the impacts of climate change. Digitized beekeeping is therefore worthwhile in both economic and ecological terms.

"Hivesound's first product is called Queen@Home and serves as a proof of concept for our idea and market entry," said Dr. Uve Samuels, EXII Managing Director. Queen@Home does not require any special hardware. "The idea is to hold a mobile phone right under the stick and to learn immediately whether the queen is there." The application runs on an app. The beehives are managed digitally and the app also eases the documentation of the AI analysis. "The aim is to expand Queen@Home into an end-to-end real-time monitoring system using additional sensors such as microphones in the hive." Sensors for measuring parameters such as temperature and humidity, which serve as additional indicators for more accurate predictions will also be used. "The aim is to detect other aspects such as swarm mood, diseases, heat stress or pesticide exposure using AI-based sound analysis," Samuel added.

Global bio-monitoring is visionary, Samuels notes, adding: "Honey bees carry substances from their surroundings and react sensitively to changes in their environment making them ideal bio-monitors." All the data collected in real-time monitoring and manual inspections are valuable indicators of the state of the environment. "The data should be made publicly available (open data). By using our product, beekeepers can provide input worldwide. The AI models are optimized based on the collected data, regional anomalies are detected and scientists gain valuable insights into many different ecosystems."

HIVESOUND exemplifies how exponential growth can be achieved creatively and in conjunction with a blue ocean strategy, said Samuels. "The right attitude is key to entrepreneurship. We too often believe that most of the opportunities for start-ups are behind us. However, in reality, the opposite is true." Existing markets are collapsing. Supply chains are being disrupted and new technologies are coming onto the market. The right mindset is needed to identify and seize the opportunities of these developments. Bisociative creativity is crucial to innovation, Samuels remarked and stressed: "Bisociative creativity means you look at two different areas to come up with specific ideas. HIVESOUND's approach is exactly that: "bees and AI".

This article was written in co-operation with Uve Samuels of the Exponential Innovation Institute.

Read the other part in our series: Innovation Made in Hamburg.

1) Disrupt yourself - smartwatch diagnoses

 2) Hamburg-based start-up demonstrating exponential growth

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