AgriTech member
Machine Eye
Brendan Digney, founder and Director of Machine Eye, talks to us about his company.
Tell us about your business.
Machine Eye is an automatic system which intelligently acts as a safety net around machinery, providing automatic protection for humans on a farm or site, regardless of whether they are a worker or bystander. We employ artificial intelligence to identify humans at risk. This along with the continual monitoring of the machine and human behaviour, allows the system to act pre-emptively, ahead of an accident, altering or automatically intervening ahead of time, much like an airbag in a car. Machine Eye will not only save lives and livelihoods but transform agricultural and industrial insurance products to deliver increased profitability and better pricing for customers, while making our farms safer and more sustainable places to work.
When did you start your business?
January 2018.
What's been your biggest highlight?
We've had a lot of highlights, big and small. When growing a business, small things can be a major highlight - such as moving into our own office space for the first time (in an eagle lab) and making first hires. Of course, we've had huge highlights too: these have included being part of the National Ploughing Championships, and the New Zealand National Fieldays.
What's been your biggest challenge?
Just as there's lot of highlights, there's lot of challenges. Facing down a pandemic, and the adaptations that required wasn't easy! We just take challenges as they come, and deal with them one by one.
Advice for entrepreneurs starting out
Make sure there is time in your week for speaking with people. Whether that's in person, or now, via zoom (Which broadens your network so much). Having great contacts and speaking to new people is one of the most important things you can do!