BioScout<\/a>\u2014an Australian startup behind an AI-powered early warning system alerting farmers to fungal pathogens\u2014has raised an A$6.75 million ($4.8 million) seed round co-led by Demea Sustainable Investment<\/a> and Astanor<\/a>.<\/p>\n The round\u2014which was also backed by GrainInnovate<\/a>, GrainCorp Ventures<\/a>, Hort Innovation Venture Fund<\/a>, Artesian,<\/a>\u00a0and Division Q<\/a>\u2014will help the Sydney-based firm boost its presence in Europe and expand its global network of sensors from 250 to 1,000 units by 2029.<\/p>\n \u201cBioScout is one of those rare companies that solves a massive, urgent problem, whilst also building a unique and powerful dataset that amplifies the impact,\u201d said Astanor partner Harry Biggs.<\/p>\n \u201cFungal threats are the scariest threats to most farmers, yet farmers remain mostly blind to the threat until it\u2019s too late, so they have to over-spray harmful chemicals or risk catastrophe. BioScout are the first to solve this hard problem with real-time spore-detection, and in the process collating a unique global real-time heat map.\u201d \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Right now, says founder and CEO Lewis Collins, PhD, growers typically follow routine preventative spray programs, applying fungicides weekly, fortnightly or monthly rather than waiting for confirmation that a pathogen is present, given that damage can be hard to mitigate once visible signs of infection appear.<\/p>\n \u201cYou essentially can\u2019t see it before it\u2019s too late,\u201d Collins told AgFunderNews<\/em>. \u201cAnd once you have [detected] it in the crop, that\u2019s when you have to get into really expensive curative fungicides that literally get in the leaf and try and destroy the fungus once it\u2019s inside, which is very difficult to do.\u201d<\/p>\n By the time growers see a lesion, the pathogen may already have completed a reproductive cycle and begun spreading through the crop, he added: \u201cThen you\u2019re in a very expensive chase your tail situation.\u201d<\/p>\n BioScout is an early warning system designed to identify airborne fungal threats before visible symptoms are observed in the field, says Collins.<\/p>\n It works by continuously drawing in air using a wind vane and capturing airborne particles including fungal spores on clear adhesive tape. After each sampling period, the tape is automatically positioned beneath a microscope that captures hundreds of high-res images.<\/p>\n These are relayed to BioScout HQ and analyzed using trained AI detection models. The data can then be interpreted alongside environmental conditions including temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, rainfall, wind speed and direction. This enables it to estimate infection risk over the following days.<\/p>\n Each sensor monitors 40+ airborne threats from crop-disease spores to pollen and other particulates. Acting on that early signal, rather than spraying to a fixed calendar, can cut growers\u2019 spray costs by up to 50%, which can translate to thousands of dollars per hectare in high-value crops, claimed Collins.<\/p>\n The tech has been validated through genetic testing and morphology, coupled with field trials to establish how spore counts correlate with disease incidence and crop infection.<\/p>\n However, as always with farm-level data, the key is translating the information into actionable insight, said Collins. BioScout does not simply identify whether a pathogen is present, but measures its concentration and interprets changes over time. A brief spike might indicate spores blowing in from another area without successfully infecting the crop. A second rise shortly after may indicate that the pathogen has completed another life cycle locally.<\/p>\n Customers access the data through a dashboard, but BioScout places greater emphasis on alerts notifying growers when spore levels rise. Growers can also enter their spray programs and assess whether applications are reducing pathogen pressure.<\/p>\n \u201cThe bread and butter of what we do is notifications and alerts,\u201d said Collins. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen the spore level rise over the next last couple of days: it\u2019s time to look at it.\u201d<\/p>\n The cartridges that collect spores can operate for up to two years without replacement, while the devices are designed to work in isolated broadacre fields with minimal maintenance. BioScout is also adapting the system for greenhouses, where it can use direct power rather than solar.<\/p>\n Sensor density varies significantly by crop and pathogen. In Australian grain-growing regions, BioScout believes devices positioned roughly every 30km may provide useful regional coverage because rust spores can travel vast distances on the wind. Vineyards may require a unit for every 100 hectares because diseases such as downy mildew tend to spread over much shorter distances.<\/p>\n Potatoes have emerged as a particularly promising market amid high disease pressure and declining fungicide performance, with deployments in Europe, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the US. The company also expects to have around 20\u201325 systems operating in Brazilian soybeans by the end of the year.<\/p>\n \u201cPotatoes are really exciting right now,\u201d said Collins. \u201cSoybeans in Brazil are a big opportunity because that is a crazy challenging market right now in terms of disease pressure. We\u2019re also talking to people in the US about cyclospora in lettuce, which is a huge issue right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Collins said crop-protection companies have been more receptive to the technology than he initially expected. While BioScout could enable farmers to spray less, chemical suppliers also recognize that habitual overapplication, reduced rates and poorly timed treatments can accelerate resistance.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are watching us very closely. I thought they\u2019d hate us when we started because we\u2019re telling farmers to spray less. But actually, these companies know that a lot of farmers are over spraying their chemicals even against their own advice.\u201d<\/p>\n The business sells each unit for roughly A$15,000 ($10,500), with annual service fees ranging from around $10,000\u201320,000 ($7,000-$14,000) depending on the level of support. \u201cWe\u2019re acting almost as an agronomy service, a pathology service on tap, right, which is a very specialized skill set.\u201d<\/p>\n In vineyards, BioScout has demonstrated that customers can potentially eliminate around half of their routine fungicide treatments, he claimed. The barrier is often not agronomic knowledge, but the risk attached to advising a grower to skip an application without objective data.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can cut out about 50% of your sprays. And yes, you could probably do that without BioScout but because you have the data you now have the confidence to make that call.\u201d<\/p>\n In one New Zealand example, he said this equated to savings of almost $500 per hectare for one grower.<\/p>\n BioScout can also provide an insurance function by alerting growers when a fungicide program is not working. Collins cited one vineyard that lost $1 million worth of grapes to botrytis after spore levels continued rising despite repeated sprays.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of our customers had a few units with us via a government program and perhaps because of that they weren\u2019t so engaged looking at the data. But when the manager looked through the data with us, he was like, we should have seen that coming. It was really obvious in our data that the spore levels were increasing, they were spraying, but it was just getting worse. Now they are one of our biggest customers.\u201d<\/p>\n One of BioScout\u2019s biggest commercial challenges is persuading growers and agronomists to alter established spray programs. Some customers are unwilling to reduce treatments because they want near-total assurance that disease will not affect yield or quality. In those cases, BioScout positions the system less as a spray-reduction tool and more as a form of risk management.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would be like not using BioScout would be like not using irrigation sensors [to monitor water levels]. That would be crazy,\u201d said Collins. \u201cIt\u2019s taken that long for people realize that spore data could be as essential as water irrigation sensing.\u201d<\/p>\n The technology could also support greater use of biologicals, which generally have narrower application windows than broad-spectrum chemicals and may need to be applied at specific stages in a pathogen\u2019s life cycle.<\/p>\n According to Collins: \u201cThe simplest way to describe it is a tornado or hurricane watch, but for crop disease;\u00a0we see it coming across the region in time to act, rather than after it\u2019s already taken hold.<\/p>\n \u201cBioScout humbly started as my PhD at the University of Sydney and is now a multinational company of 30 people operating on five continents. Every one of our sensors is designed and manufactured by a team of Australian scientists and engineers right here in Marrickville, NSW. Their work is now protecting growers across 15 countries, and key Australian industries here at home, every day.\u201d<\/p>\n Today the company uses AI primarily to identify spores in microscope images. However, it is now beginning to explore how it could use AI to couple that with other data on weather, spray programs, field observations and grower notes to reveal the causes of outbreaks and improve recommendations.<\/p>\n Further reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n Crop Diagnostix launches RNA-based crop health early-warning system<\/a><\/p>\n Barnwell Bio raises $6m to bring COVID-era bio-surveillance playbook to poultry barns<\/a><\/p>\nWhy it matters<\/strong><\/h4>\n
How it works<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Actionable insights<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"BioScout](\"https:\/\/agfundernews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/BioScout-Unit-in-field-Image-credit-BioScout.jpg\")
Target crops<\/strong><\/h4>\n
The business case<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"BioScout](\"https:\/\/agfundernews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Lewis-Collins-founder-and-CEO-BioScout-Image-credit-BioScout.jpg\")
Risk management<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Tornado or hurricane watch\u2026 for crop disease<\/strong><\/h4>\n