BioScout SporeScout Crop Disease Surveillance

BioScout is an Australian agtech company, originally a University of Sydney PhD project, that builds airborne sampling devices to warn growers of fungal crop disease before symptoms appear. Its legal entity is BioScout Pty Ltd, with sensors manufactured in New South Wales.

The SporeScout device draws in air, captures spores on adhesive tape, images them under a 400x automated microscope and uses AI to identify and count them. Results are combined with weather data into infection-risk models on a dashboard. Customers include growers, agronomists and researchers in potato, grape, grain and soybean production.

• Autonomous sampling: Solar-powered device samples air 24/7 without manual work.
• AI spore identification: 400x microscopic images of spores and pollen are identified and counted by AI.
• Fast results: Counts appear in the dashboard within 4 hours of capture.
• Risk models: Spore counts, weather and infection-risk models are shown in one dashboard.
• Surveillance network: A national broadacre network lets growers join shared monitoring.

Vineyards and orchards in Vietnam's highlands can use spore alerts to schedule fungicide programs. Large plantations or cooperatives growing potato, vegetables or coffee can deploy sensors as an early-warning layer. Crop-protection distributors can bundle monitoring with advisory services.

Early detection lets growers time fungicide sprays when they work best and avoid unnecessary applications. Sensors run autonomously on solar power, and results reach the dashboard within about 4 hours of sampling. Cartridges last roughly two years, which keeps maintenance low.

Growers face pressure to cut fungicide use while protecting yield, and climate variability is shifting disease pressure. In Southeast Asia, humid conditions favor fungal disease in rice, fruit and vegetable crops, which raises interest in early-warning tools that guide spray timing.

Raised an A$6.75 million seed round in August 2026 co-led by Demea Sustainable Investment and Astanor, aiming to grow the sensor network from 250 to 1,000 units by 2029. Listed partners include GRDC, Syngenta and Treasury Wine Estates.