Crover's 2021 in Retrospect

2022 is now upon us. However, before we set our sights on the new year, it is time to take a moment for reflection. In order to take the right path forward, we must first look backwards. 2021 was a defining year for us at Crover. Read on to find out how…

In early 2021, our founder - Lorenzo Conti - spoke to Nassim Ramadan about Crover’s mission and goals in an appearance on BBC News Arabic. In spring, Crover presented at Agri-EPI’s Centre’s annual Innovation Week, where Lorenzo talked about the myriad ways the CROVER system can future-proof the arable sector with its precision and predictive powers. Not long after, Crover appeared at RAI21’s Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Industry Showcase, where we hosted our own virtual booth for attendees to visit.

As the summer rolled around, our fortunes began to grow. In June, Crover was named as one of five finalists in the Food and Drink category for the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Emerging Technology Competition. Not long after, we began our long-anticipated crowdfunding campaign through Crowdcube - with an initial target of £150,000. The success of this campaign - which eventually reached 217% of the original target - was the highlight of our summer and one of the defining moments in the history of Crover. We are grateful to those who chose to back us and ensure the future of the company going forward. 

The summer period also saw us visit Cereals 2021 in Lincolnshire - one of Europe’s leading events for arable farming - where we were able to talk face-to-face with farmers at our first physical event for many months. Around this time we also received recognition from Corporate Vision Magazine at their Technology Innovator Awards 2021, who named us the Most Innovative Robotics and Automation Development Company in the UK. In late July, as Crover’s crowdfunding campaign surpassed £200k in funding, Lorenzo spoke alongside Pete Gwilt of Crowdcube about the merits of crowdfunding at an event organised by the Centre for Engineering, Education and Development. Given the success of our own Crowdcube campaign, it seems clear that startups in particular should consider equity crowdfunding as a way to help fund their mission.

This year we have also received valuable support from Unlocking Ambition, who selected us as a finalist in their 2021 #UA3 cohort. They also provided us with a one-to-one mentoring session with Silicon Valley legend and Global Scot, Eric McAfee. As our crowdfunding efforts drew to a close, we received more valuable financial support from the Roddenberry Foundation. The foundation set up in Star Trek creator’s Gene Roddenberry’s name recognised our ambition to boldly go where no man (or robot) has gone before, seeing fit to reward us with a grant from the Catalyst Fund. Towards the end of August, Lorenzo represented Crover at Business Scotland’s first virtual summit; after which he also spoke to Eric Della Casa of the Green Thru podcast about inefficiencies in the food system and how technology like the CROVER can make a difference in these areas. 

The latter part of 2021 saw Crover attend a number of high profile events, the first of which was TEDxUniversityofStrathclyde in October, where Lorenzo was invited as a guest speaker to talk about Crover’s mission and the 'ground-swimming' discovery of the 'Crover Effect'. In November, Crover travelled back to Glasgow for the seminal COP26, where Lorenzo appeared alongside a demonstration CROVER drone on the special COP26 live episode of BBC Click. With many anxious about the future of the planet, all eyes were on Lorenzo as he explained how the CROVER can help reduce waste and increase efficiency. Before COP26, Crover also pitched for the highly competitive Food Tech Challengers 2021 Food Tech Congress. Competing against other impressive innovators in the food and agriculture sectors, we placed as a finalist in the Agri-Tech category. 

Our success continued into December, where Crover was the overall global winner of Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials’ High-Temperature 3D Printing Carbon-Fibre Challenge. We are grateful to those who voted for us and to Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials, with whom we look forward to working in the future. The metaphorical cherry on top of our year came when Lorenzo Conti and Gianlorenzo De Santis landed in Paris for Hello Tomorrow’s 2021 Global Summit. It was at this hugely important gathering of today’s innovators and disruptors that Crover won the Food & Agriculture track, in addition to being named the #1 Global Deep-Tech Food and Agri-Tech Startup of the Year. Our success at Hello Tomorrow 2021, including Lorenzo’s pitch, ensured our year ended on a high note.

Throughout the year there were many other events and places where Crover could be spotted. We would like to thank UK Electronics Ltd, ESA Business Centre UK, Edinburgh Innovations and IOM3 Materials World, who promoted us on their respective social media channels and websites. Also Deep Knowledge Analytics who invited us to speak at their conference - ‘The Technology Revolution of FoodTech Industry’ - and Scottish Enterprise, who allowed us to host a virtual booth at ‘Scotland’s Climate Ambition Zone’. Crover also featured on COP26 Daily by the Big Light podcast, in a special episode of the SCOUT Project and in an interview with BNP Paribas on the showfloor at Hello Tomorrow. In addition to the groundbreaking work we do at Crover, our methods and ethos were also recognised when we were named one of Scotland’s most sustainable start-ups. 

It was thus that 2021 came to a close. We would like to thank all those who had our back and supported us throughout the year. As a company we have come on leaps and bounds: from the recruitment of many new, talented team members that are propelling us forwards; to the numerous improvements made to the product, each of which bring us closer to its commercial deployment at grain storage sites in the UK, Europe and beyond. 2021 was another great year for Crover and we have emerged from it stronger and more mature than before. We now look forward to the heights we will have to scale in 2022, both with excitement and with anticipation. 

Now for a few words about what to expect from us in 2022 from our founder, Lorenzo Conti…

"From the commercialisation of the first version of the CROVER Grain Storage Management system, to the setting up of a product testing and self-certification facility, while continuing to expand our technical capabilities into areas where no other company has gone before; 2022 promises to be an exciting year at Crover and a key way to continue the journey towards our mission to help grain storage operators maintain the quality of the stock, while enabling humanity to reach below the surface." - Lorenzo Conti, January 2022

From all of us at Crover we wish you a prosperous 2022 and thank you for your continued support.