20 June 2022: Uniseed-managed funds have committed $1.8M to an investment in Australian technology company BioScout alongside other investors such as Artesian Alternate Investments and Stoic VC in a $3M Seed financing round to fund process optimisation, scale-up sales and product team to supercharge their disease sensor network across Australia and expand it into overseas markets.

Artesian led the round, with Uniseed-managed funds also participating.

BioScout was formed by a team of four PhD researchers and honours students at the University of Sydney. The team was initially focused on developing novel drone-based sensors for wheat fungal diseases. After successful trials and winning the university’s ‘most innovative research’ prize, the team decided that the potential of this technology was far more than just a research tool and decided to form BioScout.

BioScout’s technology utilises tried and tested methods of crop pathology and aerobiology. It brings modern technology such as robotics and computer vision to automate the processes that have limited pathology to the scientific realm. The direct advantage of the technology is that it can detect airborne diseases in near real-time.

BioScout is bringing its technology to market using three distinct channels: agriculture companies, direct grower sales, and government. This round’s milestone is to keep growing their customers, partners and investors to help detect diseases earlier and minimise disease impacts on farms around the world.

About BioScout
A spin out from the University of Sydney, BioScout uses advanced automated microscopy and machine learning to identify airborne particles as they come through the system. Its technology measure multiple different diseases simultaneously without any human intervention. https://www.bioscout.com.au/

About Uniseed
Uniseed is Australia’s longest running early-stage commercialisation fund that makes investments in research emanating from five of Australia’s leading research organisations – The University of Queensland, The University of Sydney, The University of New South Wales, The University of Melbourne and the CSIRO. Investment capital is also provided by UniSuper. The fund facilitates the commercialisation of its research partners’ most promising intellectual property and secures targeted investment in resulting products and technologies. For more information, visit: https://uniseed.com