INDIANAPOLIS – A company using satellite and other forms of technology to take the guess work out of raising crops is moving its headquarters to Indianapolis.

Intelinair, founded in 2015 and now with more than 60 employees, is relocating its headquarters from Champaign, Ill.

It’s the second time the company has moved its headquarters; it was originally established in the San Francisco area.

Tim Hassinger, a member of the board of directors for Intelinair, told Inside Indiana Business one reason for the move is Indianapolis becoming a technology hub that should have a workforce with enough skills for tapping into to help the company meet its ambitious future growth plans.

“We believe the talent that we need is available here,” he said. 

Hassinger said the firm serves primarily corn and soybean growers from Indiana and Illinois, which also drove the decision to position the company better for the present. “It puts us close to our customers,” he said.

The information captured by the company and with help from computer software determines things like the condition of crops so farmers can respond instantly to their needs.

According to Intelinair officials, the high-resolution imagery data is taken from different sources like a satellite, fixed wing airplane or drone. Data from every acre of a field is evaluated against more than 50 different patterns to determine if there’s an issue with the crops, the officials said.

Farmers are then notified of any concerns, exactly where the problems exist and what needs to be done to improve crop health.

Hassinger, previously the CEO of the former Dow Agrisciences, said 25 percent of farmers are now using some type of imagery source to diagnose and treat crops. The company sees great opportunity to expand its customer base in Indiana, Illinois and other locations since the amount of farmers not using the latest in technology to maximize yields, although growing, is still high.

He said developing even more advanced technology for use in agriculture in the future is another key for the prospects of growth in the company.

“There’s really growth that can come from both directions here,” Hassinger said.

According to company officials, farmers also have access to data prior to planting until harvest to help crops get off to a good start and thrive during the season. Temperature readings, humidity measurements, rainfall are also gathered with sensors for quick response to problems such as lack of nitrogen or disease before they can become major and even devastating.

“We identify abnormal crop conditions long before the human eye can detect and track their progress from week to week,” company officials said.

Soil samples, along with other information such as terrain type and equipment used on a farm, are also collected as part of the digital maximum yield approach.

“Imagine an automated system to make the crop specialist’s life easier. A system that tells you everything you need to know at a glance so you can make the best decisions every time on every field,” company officials said.

Intelinair has announced some recent moves to help shape the make up at its new headquarters. Keith Porter was named senior agronomist and brings more than 30 years of experience in agronomy and other areas like ag-retail.

Daniel Marley also joined the Indianapolis-based team as senior machine learning scientist. According to the company, Marley has close to 10 years of experience in artificial intelligence and will apply computer vision and machine learning to identify opportunities and deliver alerts to farmers.