In this third episode of This Planet’s on Fire, we hear from Wade Barnes, co-founder and CEO of Farmers Edge; Prateep Basu, CEO of SatSure (a Better Satellite World Award recipient in 2020); and Sanjay Wagle, co-founder and Managing Director of The Lightsmith Group. Wade, Prateep and Sanjay join SSPI’s Lou Zacharilla to talk about the major risks in agriculture today, business models and innovations that use satellite-based information to transform agricultural practices and the impacts of climate change on agriculture and investment.

Wade Barnes’s roots began in rural Manitoba, where his passion for agriculture started at an early age. He has a strong drive to bridge the gap between technology and agronomy; the motivating force behind starting Farmers Edge™. Farmers Edge, based in Winnipeg, Canada, is the world’s most respected leader in digital agriculture and revolutionized modern agriculture through integrated, AI-driven technologies and a platform that supports growers around the world. Wade is a strong advocate for the industry with a desire to assist growers across the world to improve their farming practices, increase profits and create more efficient cropping systems. He is an industry leader winning Certified Crop Advisor (CCA) of the Year and is recognized as one of the foremost agronomists in Western Canada. Wade is an inspiring speaker presenting at events across Canada and globally as an expert on the impact of technology on agribusiness and particularly the utilization of Variable Rate Technology by growers, investors and industry players. Some of his speaking engagements include Master Seeders, Global AgInvesting Conferences and TedX. Wade previously appeared in another Better Satellite World podcast: The Intersection of Satellites and Agronomy.

Prateep Basu is the co-founder and CEO of SatSure AG. He co-founded SatSure in 2017 and has served first as Global Head of Strategy and Partnerships and then as CEO for the past 2.5 years. SatSure AG is a DeepTech space applications startup that provides spatial decision intelligence to banking and insurance clients around the world. Their proprietary platform SatSure SPARTA uses satellite imagery, IoT and weather data among others, analysed using various Artificial Intelligence algorithms, to generate usable data insights for banking customers to help them better manage their agriculture portfolios and reduce the non-performing assets through efficient loan recoveries, increase their lending and financial inclusion mandate by adding new customers, planning their market expansion as well as bundling insurance products to protect their portfolio from climate change effects. Prateep is also a Board Member for Nodd App. Before co-founding SatSure, he served as an analyst at Northern Sky Research and as a scientist at ISRO. Prateep is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, the International Space University and Stanford University. He accepted a Better Satellite World Award on behalf of SatSure at the 2020 Better Satellite World Awards Celebration. Learn more about SatSure.

Sanjay J. Wagle is the co-founder and Managing Director of the Lightsmith Group. His investment experience includes eight years in venture capital and growth equity. He was the first Principal in the CleanTech Group at VantagePoint Capital Partners, which invested over $1 billion in 25 companies, including Tesla Motors, in sectors such as solar, storage, smart grid, green building, water and sustainable agriculture. Earlier in his career, Sanjay served as an Investment Officer at the International Finance Corporation, where he led financings of private sector power and water infrastructure projects in developing countries. He has served in senior executive roles with several sustainable tech companies and co-led the launch of a new solar business: Soligent, the largest U.S. solar distributor, and of TerraVia, a biotech company converting plant-based feedstocks into tailored, high-value food oils. Sanjay also served as a senior official in the U.S. Department of Energy during the Obama Administration, where he oversaw the implementation of $15 billion in programs for clean energy and climate. He holds degrees from Harvard University and the University of California at Berkeley. Sanjay recently appeared in the Climate Sense edition of the New York Space Business Roundtable: Satellites Boosting Sustainable Technologies.

This podcast series is sponsored by

SSPI’s Better Satellite World campaign is made possible with the support of our corporate partners