BeeAnd.me is a Montenegrin startup founded in 2016 by young researchers Elma Hot and Alija Dervic, students of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the University of Montenegro. Elma is a student of master studies and is engaged in the first Montenegrin Centre for Excellence in Bioinformatics (BIO-ICT). After completing his master's studies and engagements at the BIO-ICT Centre, Alija continued his PhD studies at the Technical University of Vienna, where he was engaged at the EMCE Institute.
At the recently held World Summit Awards in Vienna, the Montenegrin innovation Beeand.me was named the best innovation in the Business and Commerce category. The World Summit Awards is awarded each year to local digital innovations that, by their creation and action, managed to create value that has influenced the development and prosperity of society.
What is Beeand.me precisely?
BeeAnd.me aims to help beekeepers overcome the traditional challenges of beekeeping by providing beekeepers with technological assistance. Their smart monitoring system for beehives consists of a microprocessor unit for measuring all significant parameters: local humidity, temperature, collected amount of honey, bees’ health through sound. Beeand.me gathers data in the cloud where they analyse it. In case it is required, thanks to the data system, beekeepers can be alarmed in time if something happens to their bees (i.e. swarming).
Beeand.me is consisted of three parts: Hardware as service, Web and mobile application, and data mining. The hardware acts as the baby monitor for the bees, and it analyses the bees’ conditions. The web and mobile application help to easily monitor the bees and their situations. Data mining helps to find a detailed insight into the conditions of the bees and beehive.
It’s not the first time this startup has been recognised as very innovative and essential. At the CeBIT tour organised in 2017, Beeand.me was presented to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and to Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe. Bees play an essential role in nature, and according to the German Beekeepers’ Association, the number of bee colonies has fallen in Germany from 2.5 million in 1952 to less than one million today. And we must not forget that fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and honey are all nutrition-rich foods that are produced with the help of animal pollinators, especially bees. In fact, an estimated 35 percent of the world’s food is dependent on animal pollinators.
That’s why the Beeand.me startup is very important not only as a business product but as an innovation that could help us protect and develop bees’ colonies.
This was the first time that Montenegro had a nomination at the World Summit Awards, and it is an incredible pleasure to see that the first nomination already managed to leave an impression on the entire international community. Not only that, but Beeand.me has previously passed a selection with over 500 innovations from around the world. They managed to place themselves in the top 40, and later become 'The World's Best Innovation in Business and Commerce' category. It’s an honorable motivation for all future or current entrepreneurs who will face their competitors in the global market.
