Spotta Knows 'Pest': Smart Pest System Company flies into 2021 with new products, new markets and larger team

• Team size doubles after successful first twelve months of commercial operations
• Product diversification: systems for Pine Weevils and Palm Weevils in development
• Company extends reach into European and North American markets

Spotta Smart Pest Systems has capped a strong first year of commercial operations with accelerated product development and market reach for 2021. To support its growth into new territories and pests, the company has doubled its headcount and secured partnerships to further extend its commercial reach.

Having secured $1.18 million in seed funding in July 2020, Spotta's ambition to revolutionise the pest control market - providing monitoring technology to help prevent wide-reaching infestations - has continued to evolve.

New markets and sectors

Designed for hospitality, the Bed Pod monitoring system for bed bugs was the pillar of 2020. Following the successful first year of Bed Pod in the UK hospitality sector, the company adapted its sales strategy to work directly with Pest Controllers in the UK, Europe and North America as the Covid pandemic hit. The Bed Pod is also set to be installed in its first community housing association in 2021.

Their Service Provider partnerships assist Pest Management Professionals in providing effective monitoring as part of their client services. In December 2020, a partnership with BadBug was announced, extending Spotta's representation in key European markets including France, Germany and Scandinavia.

Product development

In late 2020, Spotta announced its development of the Forest Pod, currently in trials with Forestry and Land Scotland monitoring Pine Weevils. The company aims to deliver the Forest Pod to market later in 2021.

Spotta's technology is also being applied to Red Palm Weevils, with initial trials set to take place in Q1 2021 and further trials in the Middle East later in the year, where the pests cause extensive damage to Coconut and Date farm crops.

Team growth

To support the growth in partnerships and systems, as well as allow the business to further develop, the Spotta team expanded in the start of 2021.

Two new Engineering recruits - Hanting Qin (R&D Engineer) and Jordan Docker (Firmware Engineer) - along with Ekansh Mittal (Commercial Lead) and Helen Snook (Office Manager) joined the team, cementing the company's reputation as an exciting place to work and develop.

From the co-founders

Robert Fryers, CEO and co-founder of Spotta, says: "It's been a busy twelve months and our ability to grow rapidly - despite the challenges our initial target market of hospitality faced from the pandemic - reflects both the huge opportunity for our technology and the fantastic contributions from our team. The year ahead looks even more promising with the launch of Forest Pod later this year, and trials due to start on our product targeting Palm Weevils. Insect pests cost £320bn despite the use of 4 million tonnes of pesticide to treat each year: our monitoring systems can help reduce the cost and environmental impact of pesticides by detecting pests early."

Neil D'Souza-Mathew, Spotta's CTO and co-founder, says: "The addition of new team members gives us a great footing to continue our business growth, from developing the technology and hardware to discovering further applications for our monitoring solutions. Bed Pod continues to prove its efficacy in international accommodation sectors. The trials of Forest Pod have been successful and we're nearing market launch. Our next project for Red Palm Weevil will further showcase the importance of monitoring as part of a wider pest management strategy."

For more information, visit spotta.co

About Spotta

Founded in 2018 in Cambridge, UK, Spotta is utilising the latest technology to revolutionise pest control, shifting the industry from reactive to proactive.

Offering unique solutions to detect and monitor pests wherever they might be found - Spotta's solutions include Pods to detect bed bugs in hotels and multi-room residential accommodation, Pine Weevils in forests and Palm Weevils in date farms. Spotta's smart pest systems allow pest controllers to react early and in a targeted manner to the presence of pests. This early action leads to a reduction in pesticides used in treatment and minimises overall damage caused by pests as they are treated before large scale infestations can take hold.

Discover more at spotta.co