How Brainwired's WeStock is Changing the Game in Cattle Farming

Romeo P. Jerard and Sreeshankar S. Nair, both of Kochi, didn't need to hunt for business ideas to launch their businesses like other entrepreneurs do. The two became aware of the issues the cattle business was facing when they began assisting their grandparents with dairy farming. The pair launched Brainwired in February 2018 with the intention of assisting farmers in better understanding their cattle. Using an Internet of Things (IoT) ear tag and a special Machine Learning (ML) algorithm, the Kochi-based business has created the WeStock animal health monitoring and tracking system, which notifies farmers when livestock become ill or become pregnant.

The founders claim that the concept was first developed as a project for their grandparents. They decided to turn their findings into a firm after realising the issue was one the industry was experiencing across all of India.

In addition, the product aids farmers in tracking and monitoring their animals as well as providing them with online veterinary support for advice on any questions they may have.

Starting Up

At Toch Institute of Science and Technology in Kochi, Romeo and Sreeshankar's first year of engineering, they caught the entrepreneurial bug. After graduating from college, they made the decision to work for a corporation in order to get business knowledge and raise money for their own startup. They each spent a year working for Jio and Byju's before starting Brainwired in 2018. The Kerala Startup Mission served as the startup's initial incubator. They then received support from Gurugram-based incubator Huddle, which aided them in 2020 in raising money.

Recent pre-seed funding for Brainwired came from Mumbai Angels and India Accelerator. Currently, Brainwired has three employees, including one hardware engineer and two software engineers, in addition to the two founders. But, the team's number will increase to 10 members by the end of July, according to the founders.

Keeping an eye on the movement of cattle

Recent pre-seed funding for Brainwired came from Mumbai Angels and India Accelerator. Currently, Brainwired has three employees, including one hardware engineer and two software engineers, in addition to the two founders. But, the team's number will increase to 10 members by the end of July, according to the founders.

The items include an Internet of Things-based tag and a centralised reader to gather data. "After a tag is placed on a cow, it watches the cow's behaviour, including its grazing pattern, walking pattern, rumination, lameness, etc. and sends information to our server if anything is out of the ordinary. According to Sreeshankar, the server derives useful information from the gathered data and sends necessary notifications to farmers' cell phones.
In 2019, the worldwide dairy market was worth $718.9 billion. According to a research by the Indian Council of Food and Agriculture (ICFA), India is home to 75 million dairy farms, or roughly half of all dairy farms worldwide. Over the past five years, the CAGR for milk production has been around 4%.

According to the creators, Stellapps, a Bengaluru-based company that provides services to private dairies, cooperatives, and farm-owned dairy operations, is their main rival today. Stellapps optimises the whole dairy supply chain, including milk production, procurement, and cold chain logistics.

Plans for future

The firm is currently solely taking orders from Kerala. By January 2021, the business claimed, it will have deployed the product all across India. The team says it was given orders to tag over 2,000 animals in at least four cities and over 3,500 cattle in a pipeline spanning three states.

In the first quarter of 2019, Brainwired also intends to begin operations in Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra. The firm also intends to work with the national government to extend its reach to low-income farmers all around the nation.