Purdue professor's company selected as 1 of 20 startups to compete for $3 million

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — LeafSpec LLC, an agricultural technology startup founded by a Purdue University associate professor, was selected as one of 20 international startups to compete for $3 million in total prize money at this year’s Grow-NY Food and Ag Summit.

Grow-NY Food and Ag Summit is an annual competition that tries to identify and highlight companies that are working to support and create global agriculture innovations regarding food and beverages.

As one of the startups chosen for this competition, LeafSpec can win the $1 million grand prize, one of the two $500,000 prizes or one of the four $250,000 prizes.

What is LeafSpec?

LeafSpec LLC was started by Jian Jin, an associate professor in Purdue University’s Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering.

The company developed a handheld plant phenotyping technology, which was described as “the process of measuring and studying the physical characteristics of plants, including their growth, development and response to environmental factors,” according to the press release.

“LeafSpec is an accurate, affordable and portable hyperspectral crop leaf scanner,” Jin said.

“Our handheld device and software can provide accurate and early detection of plant diseases, nutrient deficiencies and stresses from chemical sprays. This is done within seconds without damage to the plant.

“It then relays the measurement results to a farmer’s or scientist’s smartphone. This information can guide users to make quicker and smarter decisions on fertilizing, spraying and irrigation, saving their cost and improving the yield. The result is improved food security: additional crop resiliency and production that leads to more crops available for harvest and worldwide consumption.”

LeafSpec was one of the 323 startups from 49 countries that applied for this year’s Grow-NY Food and Ag Summit competition.

In November, the company will have its innovative technology reviewed by a panel of 30 judges, who have a depth and breadth of regional expertise, knowledge of the region’s agriculture and food production communities, and entrepreneurial experience. The twenty companies will have to pitch their business plans at the Grow-NY Food and Ag Summit judges.

“Winning the prize money would impact our business, of course, but we will also receive dedicated mentorship from a business advisor and networking introductions and tours with potential partners during Grow-NY,” Jin said.

“It also will be informative to connect with the other finalists: agriculture, food and beverage entrepreneurs from across the United States, Canada, India and the United Kingdom.”

How LeafSpec differs from other plant scanners

Although plant phenotyping technologies, facilities and systems have been in use for years now, most of them could only be used at a larger scale, which were primarily used by large agricultural companies and academic institutions.

The innovative aspect of Jin’s company and technology is that LeafSpec was able to miniaturize the technology while he was at the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at Purdue.

When Jin achieved this innovation, he disclosed the imaging software and hardware innovations to the Purdue Innovates Office of Technology Commercialization, which submitted patent applications on the intellectual property. The company has already been granted one issued patent and LeafSpec has the exclusive rights to manufacture and sell the technology.

“With our exclusive license to the Purdue technology, LeafSpec is now delivering the most advanced phenotyping technology with an easy-to-use handheld device. It’s gratifying to have built a tool that can impact the lives of growers and scientists around the world,” Jin said.

Who will benefit from LeafSpec's technology

As of reporting, most of LeafSpec’s current customers are plant scientists and breeders from universities and large companies.

“Our customers’ research and field scouting efforts have greatly benefited from LeafSpec’s distinctive spatial-spectral resolutions and enhanced signal clarity. This enables them to gather unprecedented quality of hyperspectral leaf images for stress analysis, leading to the discovery of novel plant stress signals and enhanced measurement accuracy,” Jin said.

“The ag engineers at Purdue have published exciting new findings on nitrogen stress signals using LeafSpec. Similarly, numerous researchers investigating different diseases, nutrient deficiencies and chemical damages can do the same.”

LeafSpec has created multiple models of its device, with the goal of covering different species such as corn, soybeans, wheat, and rice.

The company sold its first device in 2019, and as of summer 2023, the company registered sales of nearly $400,000.

“We can only fulfill a very limited portion of the incoming requests,” Jin said.

“We are working to further strengthen our manufacturing capability and expand the technical support team in order to scale up the business.

“While there is a great potential to expand the business within the research community, we’re planning to introduce field scouting services to farmers. Field research over the past four years has demonstrated that LeafSpec can deliver significantly improved accuracy in measuring corn nitrogen content," Jin said.

"This aids farmers in making informed fertilization decisions, addressing a market worth over $10 billion in the U.S. LeafSpec and Purdue are currently collaborating with major ag industry companies and fellow land-grant universities to test the technology for this market.”

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Purdue professor's startup company LeafSpec to compete for $3 million