AgriSound launches partnership with AB InBev for international pollinator conservation [Updated]

We’re really pleased to be one of just 30 successful companies out of 2000+ applicants chosen by four of the world’s largest brands, AB InBev, The Coca-Cola Company, Colgate-Palmolive and Unilever, to be part of Cohort 5 of their incredible 100+ Accelerator initiative. 
 
The 100+ Accelerator is an incredible scheme to boost sustainability startups by partnering them with huge name brands and giving them a collaborative environment to share innovation and development. The project will see our Polly AI bioacoustic insect listening device deployed to help support the environmental goals of these amazing brands and connect us with the other innovative start-ups too. 
 
We attended the launch event in Belgium earlier this year, where we got to meet the other incredible start-ups taking part in the scheme, and really got excited about kicking off the project together. As the only company focused on biodiversity in this cohort, particularly focused on pollinator welfare, we’re anticipating what this will undoubtedly mean for the development of the Polly, beginning with the upcoming first pilot with AB InBev.

What is the project? 

Aligned with AB InBev’s conservation efforts, the pilot project will use our Polly insect monitoring devices to measure the impact of restorative practices on biodiversity. With our devices strategically installed across prioritised areas, the pilot project aims to understand habitat variations, assess pre-intervention baselines, and identify best practices for biodiversity uplift.

AgriSound’s Polly devices will then reveal the variation between habitat types and interventions and help us establish pre-intervention baselines for biodiversity monitoring. This is so we can identify best practices supporting biodiversity and environmental improvements.

Some in-depth data analysis will then be required, which will drive recommendations for biodiversity enhancement. Potential future steps are yet to be decided as they will be determined by initial results but may include expanding data collection, developing bioacoustic signatures for more pollinator species, and extending the project’s reach to support broader conservation goals.

How do we do this? 

The pilot project is now underway, and we’ll review the first set of data before the end of the year.

The project is set to assess and prioritise pilot sites based on land, habitats, and interventions. This has just kicked off in El Salvador, where AB InBev is focusing on protecting water for communities living in high-risk watersheds, including ongoing work restoring the ecosystem and landscape close to the San Salvador volcano, with high risk to water supply in the area, including the supply to the city of San Salvador itself.

Our CEO, Casey Woodward, said about the project: “It’s an incredible opportunity for us to spread the positive environmental impact of our Polly insect monitoring devices’ reach even further around the globe, providing vital data to support communities that need it most, and utilising our tech in ever-evolving ways. We’re looking forward to how this partnership will help shape our tech and bring it to new heights, starting with the pilot project launching this spring.”

Stage 1

In the middle of hot July – and despite a global IT outage interrupting flights! – our team flew out to the crucial San Salvador Volcano to hand-deliver our Polly devices to the cultivated sites for assessment. By trekking through the forest situated on top of the volcano, we situated our devices in key areas to gather data about the health of local biodiversity at each site. From the pastures on the lower slopes of the volcano, to rich coffee plantations higher up and cloud forest at the very top, pollinators and climate levels around the volcano are being tracked and remotely reported back to the AB InBev team right now.

The twelve chosen sites have been assessed according to their use, such as for crops or pasture, and the project will designate best practices and traditional practices across these sites for most efficient use and protection. Best practices will include digging biopores in the earth at the coffee plantations, in order to intercept rainwater for infiltration into the soil. Areas around the volcano are also being assessed for best practice, including a nearby lagoon and various areas of forest established on top of ancient (and relatively recent) cooled lava flows.

The aim of all this work is that the water supply running from the San Salvador volcano into the city of El Salvador is protected – and there are plenty more benefits to be had with our real-time, accurate data feeding the team information about the volcano and its biodiversity.

Stage 2

The first set of results were gathered by October – and across the board, we saw the proof that there has been a rise in biodiversity where regenerative interventions have been put into place, across all twelve sites. This is huge for AB InBev, who are now empowered with data that provides real-time insight into the best sites for growing crops or implementing biopores to nurture rich soil.

Thanks to the success of the project, we were invited to showcase our findings on the big stage at the 100+ Accelerator Demo Day, which took place in London on the 29^th of October. There, we spoke about how the regenerative farming practices have made a huge impact to the sites in El Salvador, insights into just how crucial bees are as a keystone indicator species, and how businesses can actually benefit on every front by putting nature first.

More results will follow as the project continues, and year-round data is built to better understand the sites being monitored. In the meantime, we’ve got many more exciting projects in the works, to expand our services to food and drink producers globally.

Keep up with us

Through this partnership, AgriSound and AB InBev are pioneering sustainable solutions that not only protect pollinators but also contribute to global biodiversity and ecosystem health. 

We’ll be posting developments on this project as they happen into this blog as well as on our social media, so if you’d like to learn more about how we’re using the Polly to better develop biodiversity in El Salvador, make sure you’re following us on Linkedin, Instagram and X. To learn more about how our Polly devices could help you, email us at [email protected].