As FieldBee celebrates its 10th anniversary, the company reflects on its remarkable journey from just an idea to a leading player in the agricultural technology sector.
“This milestone marks a decade of dedication, innovation, and growth, all driven by our passion to realise our dream of making the world a better place by helping farmers worldwide,” the company says.
“The story begins in 2013, a time when merging smartphone technology with farming practices was a novel concept. Our CEO, Michael Utkin, reconnected with Oleksii, a former colleague working for a major Ukrainian IT company. Oleksii had been leading a team developing farm management systems for large Ukrainian agricultural corporations. These projects were substantial, multi-million euro investments. Interestingly, as a byproduct, Oleksii created a smartphone and cloud applications designed for managing fieldwork activities, a sort of farm management system.
“The next step was determining if this innovative app could find a market among European farmers. Michael, together with his wife and little daughter, embarked on a whirlwind tour across Austria, Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Italy. Armed with the smartphone app and a wealth of questions, he spent two months interviewing farmers and understanding their pain points. These discussions revealed common challenges: inefficiency in fieldwork, wastage of materials, excessive paperwork, and the physical toll of the work itself.
“Realising the potential to address these issues, our founders devised a simple yet much-needed solution: a manual guidance system for tractors that not only aided in driving but also significantly reduced paperwork by generating reports. This idea laid the foundation for FieldBee.
“In 2014, the Company took its first significant step by joining the European Space Agency Business Incubation Centre in Noordwijk, Netherlands. With the support of a grant and technical assistance, FieldBee published the first mobile application for automatic documentation of fieldwork. The app quickly gained popularity, becoming the most downloaded farming app globally. This success allowed the Company to connect with tens of thousands of farmers and better understand their needs.
“Building on this feedback, the Company launched a crowdfunding campaign in 2016 – 2017 to develop an RTK L1 GPS receiver, integrated with the FieldBee mobile app, into a manual tractor guidance system. The campaign was a resounding success, attracting support from farmers in 20 countries.
“As FieldBee’s reputation among farmers grew, tractor OEMs began to take notice. They appreciated the simplicity, remote support capabilities, affordability, and versatility of our products. In response to their interest, the first tractor steering system was launched in 2018. Though successful, selling over 1,000 units, it relied heavily on third-party components and was still somewhat costly.
“In 2021, amidst global upheaval, the Company embarked on developing the next-generation steering system, PowerSteer. The onset of the russian invasion forced the Company to relocate its R&D centre and production to Poland from Ukraine. Despite these challenges, the unwavering support from the farming community enabled the Company to continue. By 2023, we had sold over 1,500 units of PowerSteer and expanded our team to 95 people across five countries.
“Today, FieldBee stands strong, continuously improving its core products and exploring new avenues such as autonomous agricultural machinery and AI. Our commitment to innovation and quality remains steadfast as we move forward. As we look to the future, one of our biggest challenges will be establishing a robust dealer and distributor network. With the agricultural sector rapidly evolving towards greater autonomy, we are involved in several projects with OEMs to stay ahead of the curve.
“What sets FieldBee apart is our close relationship with farmers, our relentless pursuit of customer satisfaction, and our technical expertise. These qualities make us a preferred partner for OEMs and dealers looking to innovate and develop new products and solutions together. In recent years, we have made significant investments, including setting up a production and R&D facility in Gliwice, Poland. This move has allowed us to ensure the highest quality standards and acquire unique talents to accelerate our development processes.
“Here’s to a decade of FieldBee and many more years of innovation and growth. Thank you to our incredible team, partners, and, most importantly, the farmers who trust us to help them to be more efficient and sustainable in all the farms and under all conditions. Cheers to the future!”
This article was sponsored by FieldBee. Find out more about the company at its website here.
