LaaS - Lightning-as-a-Service ⚡

Twelve months ago, I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Mic Black and Darryl Lyons at the Tropical Innovation Festival. We bonded over a shared interest in biology, cells, and voltage-gated channels. Two weeks ago, I had the chance to catch up with them again, and wow, have they had an incredible year! 🌱

Australia's First Nations have known for generations that lightning can significantly impact plant growth. In fact, areas struck by lightning are known to provide fertile soil, leading to substantial increases in plant growth rates and excellent crop yields.

As a proud Maiawali man, third-generation farmer, and Chief Rainmaker, Darryl has been working closely with co-founder Mic, a hardware and software engineer and the Chief Thunderstorm Creator, to harness electricity to mimic the natural effects of lightning. They achieve this by treating seeds with variable electric fields, leading to increased germination rates (reducing the total number of seeds needed) and enhancing the final yield per seed. In this way, their company, “Rainstick,” aims to use lightning as a service to improve global food security. 🌍

While attending this year's Tropical Innovation Festival, I had the opportunity to tour their new lightning facility in Cairns. It was awesome to see how they are using automated imaging and machine learning to increase their analytical capacity—they can now treat, plant, and analyze over 30,000 seedlings per month! 🤖

Rainstick is currently funded by Startmate, and Darryl and Mic are eager to connect with others interested in bioelectrics and sustainable farming. Take a few minutes to check out their website, which features one of the coolest homepages around. 🌿