Semios vs Hermes Robotics

About

Semios is a precision agriculture platform for tree fruit, nut, and wine grape growers — providing automated pest and disease monitoring through a network of connected sensors and pheromone dispensers, combined with AI-powered alerts that tell growers exactly when and where to apply pesticides. Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, Semios has raised approximately $100 million and monitors over 1 million acres across North America, focusing on permanent crops (almonds, walnuts, pistachios, apples, cherries, wine grapes) where monitoring accuracy directly impacts expensive, long-lifecycle crops.\n\nSemios' hardware network of field sensors monitors temperature, humidity, leaf wetness, and most importantly insect pheromone traps that capture pest insects (codling moth, navel orangeworm, mite mites) to provide automated pest pressure monitoring without walking every row. The platform's predictive models use degree-day accumulation (temperature-based pest development models) to predict pest emergence timing and recommend precise spray windows, enabling growers to target pesticide applications for maximum effectiveness while reducing unnecessary applications.\n\nIn 2025, Semios competes in the specialty crop precision agriculture market against Pessl Instruments (iMETOS weather and pest monitoring), Trimble Agriculture, and scouting service companies for tree fruit and nut grower analytics. The permanent crop market represents significant value — almonds and pistachios are multi-hundred-dollar-per-acre crops where precision monitoring ROI is high. Semios expanded in 2021 by acquiring Agworld (farm management software) to broaden its platform beyond monitoring into broader farm management. The 2025 strategy focuses on expanding from pest monitoring into broader crop management (irrigation scheduling, frost management), growing in Latin American markets, and adding AI-powered carbon sequestration reporting for sustainability programs.