Telesense
TeleSense is an AgTech company that provides IoT-based environmental monitoring (temperature, humidity, CO2) and predictive analytics for post-harvest grain storage and transportation, serving large commercial grain businesses, cooperatives, and storage operators in North America and Europe as a subsidiary of UPL's DECCO Post-Harvest division.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2014
- HeadquartersYakima, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Telesense does
TeleSense is an agricultural technology company that provides IoT-based environmental monitoring and control solutions for the post-harvest grain supply chain. Founded in 2014 by Naeem Zafar and headquartered in Yakima, Washington, the company develops wireless battery-powered sensor hardware, including the BinShield grain bin monitor, multi-sensor spears for piles and bunkers, fan sensors, and standalone units for in-transit monitoring of barges, railcars, and trucks. Sensors continuously measure temperature, relative humidity, and carbon dioxide, transmitting data to the cloud-based TeleSense App via cellular or gateway connectivity. The platform applies data science and predictive analytics to detect spoilage earlier than legacy temperature-cable systems, identify hot spots and risk zones, optimize fan operation timing, and recommend when to sell grain for maximum profitability.
The company sells to large commercial grain businesses, cooperatives, and storage operators in the United States and across 13 European countries. Named customers include ADM, DSV, DLF, Kokomo Grain (55 million bushels across eight Indiana locations), and Gavin Owens (a Guinness brewery supplier managing 100+ million pounds of grain). TeleSense operates on a hybrid revenue model combining hardware sales of sensors and gateways with recurring SaaS subscriptions for the TeleSense App. Distribution is direct in North America via enterprise field sales and, in Europe, through TeleSense Europe ApS (established following the April 2019 acquisition of Danish IoT firm Webstech). TeleSense has been a subsidiary of DECCO Post-Harvest, the post-harvest solutions division of global agribusiness UPL, since 2019, with access to UPL's global agricultural input distribution network through the OpenAg platform.
TeleSense's product portfolio extends beyond grain bins into ground pile and bunker monitoring, grain transportation monitoring with geolocation, potato storage monitoring, and other storage types (flat storage, grain bags, warehouses, crates). The company has raised approximately $16.7 million in venture funding, including a $10.2 million Series B in October 2020 led by Finistere Ventures with participation from Rabobank Food & Agri Innovation Fund, Congruent Ventures, Fulcrum Global Capital, and others. Headcount is in the 11-50 employee range.
Telesense firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Telesense
- Legal name
- TeleSense
- Website
- https://telesense.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2014
- Operating status
- Acquired
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- TeleSense is an AgTech company that provides IoT-based environmental monitoring (temperature, humidity, CO2) and predictive analytics for post-harvest grain storage and transportation, serving large commercial grain businesses, cooperatives, and storage operators in North America and Europe as a subsidiary of UPL's DECCO Post-Harvest division.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Telesense industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Agricultural IoT / Postharvest Grain Monitoring
- NAICS
- Automatic Environmental Control Manufacturing for Residential, Commercial, and Appliance Use (334512)
- SIC
- Industrial Instruments For Measurement, Display, And Control (3823)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Remote Sensing, Alerts & Predictive Analytics for Spoilage/Hotspot Detection (AFAOALAJ)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Transport-Integrated Temperature Monitoring (In-Storage to Outbound Loads) (AFAOALAG)
Keywords
Where Telesense is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Yakima
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices2 records
Markets served
Telesense business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Supply Chain, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Hardware Sales (Sensors and Devices): Sale of wireless battery-powered sensor spears, gateways, and fan monitoring devices. Hardware is installed at customer sites for continuous monitoring.
- Software as a Service (TeleSense App): Cloud-based software platform for data visualization, alerts, and analytics. Accessed via smartphone, computer, or tablet with internet connection. Subscription-based recurring revenue.
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels4 records
Telesense product offering
Product offeringCore offering
TeleSense sells IoT-based environmental monitoring solutions for stored agricultural commodities. Its product portfolio combines wireless hardware sensors (spears, gateways, fan sensors) with the cloud-based TeleSense App to continuously track temperature, relative humidity, and carbon dioxide in grain bins, ground piles, bunkers, during transport, and in potato storage. The system delivers CO2-based spoilage detection, 3D risk zone visualization, custom alerts, and data-driven recommendations for grain conditioning, fan operation, and selling decisions.
Product overview
TeleSense offers an IoT and data science platform for agricultural commodity monitoring. The company combines wireless hardware sensors (TeleSense Spears, Fan Sensors) with their TeleSense App software platform to continuously monitor temperature, relative humidity (RH), and carbon dioxide levels in grain storage and transportation. The product portfolio includes BinShield for grain bin monitoring, Ground Pile/Bunker Monitoring, Grain Transportation Monitoring, Potato Storage Monitoring, and Other Storage Units Monitoring. The system provides CO₂-based spoilage detection, risk zone identification, custom alerts, and recommendations for grain quality management.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- BinShield: Wireless grain bin monitoring solution using CO2 monitoring for early spoilage detection without temperature cables
- Webstech
Products and services
- BinShield Grain Bin Monitoring Wireless grain bin monitoring solution using two wireless sensors placed in the headspace and plenum to track temperature, relative humidity, and carbon dioxide. Provides CO2-based spoilage detection that warns earlier than temperature-only systems and removes the need for temperature cables or climbing bins.
- TeleSense App Cloud-based software platform that aggregates data from wireless sensors and provides continuous monitoring, custom alerts, temperature and moisture charts, 3D visualization of storage units, and comparisons across multiple locations. Accessible via web browser, smartphone, and tablet.
- TeleSense Spears Battery-powered multi-sensor wireless spears that monitor temperature, relative humidity, and CO2 levels in grain storage units, transportation vehicles, and potato storage. Available with cellular or WiFi data connectivity.
- Ground Pile and Bunker Monitoring Wireless monitoring solution for ground piles and bunkers with aeration. Battery-powered multi-sensor spears are laid in a grid pattern to compare temperature and moisture values from different parts of the pile, enabling holistic spoilage assessment.
- Grain Transportation Monitoring Standalone battery-powered spears that monitor temperature, relative humidity, and geolocation data during commodity transit in barges, railcars, and trucks. Sends alerts when temperature or RH levels exceed pre-set ranges.
- Potato Storage Monitoring Wireless spear monitoring solution for potato storage that tracks temperature, humidity, and CO2 levels as air moves through the potato pile, providing a complete view of the storage environment and enabling pinpoint problem identification.
- Other Storage Units Monitoring Monitoring solution for flat storages, grain bags, warehouses, crates, and other storage unit types. Uses battery-powered spears with multiple temperature and moisture sensors and 3D sensor layout visualization for comprehensive coverage.
- Fan Sensors Devices that measure the temperature and moisture of air that blows out of a grain pile. Used in combination with spears to understand conditions inside the entire grain mass by comparing airflow readings across multiple fans.
Quantifiable outcome
- Earlier spoilage detection through CO2 monitoring vs. temperature-only systems
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Telesense
Customer profileNamed customers7 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Telesense technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability4 records
Feature6 records
Telesense partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- DECCO Post-HarvestcoreDECCO Post-Harvest, UPL's post-harvest solutions subsidiary, acquired TeleSense in 2019 to strengthen its offering to combat food waste. The acquisition provides TeleSense with access to UPL's global agricultural network and distribution capabilities.
- WebstechcoreTeleSense acquired Danish IoT company Webstech in April 2019 to expand its market footprint into European markets and strengthen its IoT sensor capabilities for grain monitoring.
- UPL Open AgcoreUPL Open Ag is the parent company network under which DECCO operates. The OpenAg network provides sustainable agricultural growth across the globe with no limits or borders, reaching 8 billion people.
Scale indicators4 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Telesense competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- DTN: DTN provides agricultural weather, market data, and operational analytics to grain buyers, elevators, and commercial growers. Its installed base among commercial grain businesses makes it a credible channel or competitor for storage-condition analytics and decision-support tools.
- John Deere (Deere & Company): Deere's Operations Center and See & Spray platforms increasingly extend into post-harvest and in-bin sensing through partnerships and acquisitions (e.g., Blue River, Light). As Deere pushes data-driven agronomy across the full crop cycle, it is a strategic incumbent that could bundle grain monitoring into its existing precision-ag stack.
- Climate FieldView (Bayer): Bayer's Climate FieldView platform is the largest digital agronomy SaaS in row crops, aggregating sensor, satellite, and equipment data for growers. While currently focused on in-field decisions, its data infrastructure and grower relationships make it a likely platform-level competitor or partner for post-harvest storage monitoring.
- AGCO Corporation (GSI Grain Systems): AGCO's GSI division is one of the largest global manufacturers of grain bins, dryers, and conditioning equipment. GSI has introduced its own bin-monitoring sensors (e.g., GSI Connect), making AGCO a direct competitor on the grain-storage telemetry side while also being a potential OEM channel for TeleSense-style technology.
Direct peers
- Semios: Semios provides IoT sensors and predictive analytics for specialty crops (orchards, vineyards, almonds), with a similar hardware-plus-AI subscription offering to large agricultural operators. While focused on specialty crops, its platform architecture and go-to-market motion for enterprise growers closely mirror TeleSense's model.
- CropX: CropX sells IoT soil and irrigation sensors with a cloud analytics platform, targeting similar agricultural customers with a comparable hardware-plus-SaaS subscription model. The overlap is strongest on data science for on-farm storage and environmental conditions, though CropX focuses primarily on in-field soil rather than grain storage.
- Tule Technologies: Tule builds field-deployed sensors (e.g., canopy temperature, ET) combined with agronomic analytics for irrigation and crop stress decision support. It is comparable to TeleSense as a venture-backed ag-IoT sensor+analytics company selling actionable insights to commercial growers.
- Arable Labs: Arable produces a multi-sensor weather/crop station with analytics for irrigation, spraying, and harvest timing. Its device-plus-cloud subscription model for agricultural operators closely parallels TeleSense's approach of bundling hardware sensing with cloud-based decision-support software.
Regional players
- Bühler Group: Bühler is a Swiss-based global leader in grain processing, handling, and storage equipment. It supplies turnkey grain facilities and increasingly embeds digital monitoring into its installations, making it both a channel for grain-storage sensors and a competitor in connected-storage analytics across EMEA.
Others
- Iteris (agriculture segment): Iteris provides weather, soil, and crop analytics for agribusinesses and offers ClearAg decision-support tools. While its sensor footprint is lighter than TeleSense's, its analytics layer and enterprise ag-customer base make it an adjacent competitor for storage-condition decision support.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Telesense social profiles
Digital presenceTelesense financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Telesense leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles7 records
Telesense subsidiaries and ownership
Company hierarchySubsidiaries2 records
Telesense funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds5 records
Investors14 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Telesense M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A1 record
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Telesense
What does Telesense do?
TeleSense sells IoT-based environmental monitoring solutions for stored agricultural commodities. Its product portfolio combines wireless hardware sensors (spears, gateways, fan sensors) with the cloud-based TeleSense App to continuously track temperature, relative humidity, and carbon dioxide in grain bins, ground piles, bunkers, during transport, and in potato storage. The system delivers CO2-based spoilage detection, 3D risk zone visualization, custom alerts, and data-driven recommendations for grain conditioning, fan operation, and selling decisions.
Is Telesense a public or private company?
Telesense is a private company. It is classified as corporate owned and is currently acquired.
When was Telesense founded?
Telesense was founded in 2014. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Telesense based?
Telesense is headquartered in Yakima, United States, in the North America region.
How does Telesense make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Hardware Sales (Sensors and Devices) is the primary driver. The others are software as a Service (TeleSense App).
Who are Telesense's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are DTN, John Deere (Deere & Company), Climate FieldView (Bayer) and AGCO Corporation (GSI Grain Systems). Direct peers are Semios, CropX, Tule Technologies and Arable Labs. Bühler Group is listed as a regional player. Iteris (agriculture segment) is listed as an others.
Does Telesense have an API?
No public API is recorded for Telesense.
What industry is Telesense in?
Telesense's product category is Agricultural IoT / Postharvest Grain Monitoring. Its primary akta.pro industry code is AFAOALAJ, Remote Sensing, Alerts & Predictive Analytics for Spoilage/Hotspot Detection, with a secondary code of AFAOALAG, Transport-Integrated Temperature Monitoring (In-Storage to Outbound Loads). Its NAICS code is 334512 and its SIC code is 3823.