From Weeds to Useful Plants: Senteco Finds New Value in Its AI Model with Support from EDIH Oceanopolis
What happens when a technology designed to combat something can just as easily be used to discover something valuable? For Senteco AS, the mentoring program at EDIH Oceanopolis through Nordic Edge was an eye-opener—not only for more effective investor communication, but also for a strategic opportunity they hadn’t seen before.
Through EDIH Oceanopolis’s 24-hour mentoring program, the Sandnes-based company received an assessment of its digital maturity, a reality check on its market positioning, and concrete guidance on where there is actually a willingness to pay in the market.
A family-owned company with agronomic DNA
Senteco AS (formerly Jærsense AS) was founded in 2019 and is run by three cousins—one farmer and two programmers. This combination is no coincidence. The company is developing a modular sensor with built-in AI image recognition that mounts onto existing spray equipment and can control nozzles so that pesticides are applied only where they’re actually needed. The main focus is on grass production, which is a large but often overlooked segment in the technological development of agriculture.
“We wanted to tackle weed control in the most environmentally friendly way possible by reducing pesticide use. We’re creating an intelligent sensor that attaches to the front of existing spraying equipment,” says Jacob Berntsen, CEO of Senteco.
The motivation is personal. The farmer in the family has long wanted to switch to organic farming but has been stuck in a familiar dilemma: without effective tools for weed control and without synthetic fertilizers, the transition is challenging.
When Weeds Became Useful Plants
When Senteco joined the EDIH Oceanopolis program, the focus was exclusively on weed recognition. Along the way, an insight emerged that changed the direction of the project.
“We took it a step further beyond just weeds and discovered that, for example, clover—being able to distinguish these beneficial plants from the weeds—held even greater value,” explains Jacob.
The logic is simple: if the sensor can map how much clover there is in a meadow, the farmer can adjust the use of synthetic fertilizer accordingly. This opens up a completely different business angle than just weed control.
“That dependence on synthetic fertilizer is a very significant factor in agriculture,” says Jacob.
Digital Maturity as an Eye-Opener
The EDIH Oceanopolis initiative began with a Digital Maturity Assessment (DMA), a structured evaluation of the company’s digital standing.
“It was presented in a more scientific way than I might have imagined earlier. It was really nice to see it framed in terms of business-oriented thinking—not so much the ‘garage-style’ thinking we’ve had,” says Jacob.
Among other things, the DMA highlighted low digital visibility as an area Senteco needed to address sooner than anticipated. The company had a website under development and little content in place, and had assumed that aspect could wait.
“There were things that came to light that we might have thought weren’t that important yet. But suddenly, they become important. People with experience know that these things need to be in place fairly early on, ” he says.
For Jack Davies, Business Developer at Nordic Edge and mentor through EDIH Oceanopolis, it is precisely this mismatch between internal perceptions and market expectations that often determines how easy—or difficult—it will be to raise capital.
– Senteco has a strong technical and agronomic foundation, and a vision that actually taps into something big: the combination of reduced pesticide use and less dependence on synthetic fertilizers. “What we often see in the early stages is that strong technical teams underestimate how early they need to start working on the market, investors, and visibility. This isn’t something that comes after the technology—it happens in parallel,” says Jack Davies, Business Developer at Nordic Edge / EDIH Oceanopolis
Mentoring That Lowers the Barrier to Entry
Beyond the DMA, the mentoring program focused on building a presentation that Senteco could bring to investor meetings, and on identifying what actually sets the company apart from other players in a market where international players like DJI Agras have already demonstrated what’s possible with the right execution.
– Jack has been very engaged. He’s shared his experiences with us and pointed out things we need to be mindful of. We’ve more or less shared just about everything—and I’ve gotten the impression that he’s genuinely interested. It’s been a huge help for us,” says Jacob about the collaboration with Jack Davies.
The mentor’s role isn’t to dictate the path forward, but to open doors and contribute expertise where the company itself has gaps in its knowledge.
– That’s exactly what this program is meant to be: access to experience and structure when the company needs it most. “Senteco came in with a clear vision and a solid technological foundation. Our job is to help them connect the technology to customer needs, set the right priorities, and prepare them for that meeting with investors where every sentence counts,” says Jack Davies
A reality check that shifted the focus
Jacob is clear about where Senteco would be today without the mentoring program:
– We would probably have focused on other things. We were very product-focused, perhaps not so much on presentation and the importance of being somewhat visible. That has shifted our focus quite a bit, and I think that was a good thing.
Income statements, investor pitches, and a clearer narrative about what the company actually delivers are now in place in a completely different way than they were at the start of the mentoring program.
The Way Forward
With the insight that useful plant analysis can have at least as much market value as weed control, Senteco is now working to revise its presentation and business model. The goal is an investor pitch that can withstand dialogue with professional investors and that paves the way for the first substantive discussions about raising capital.
For Lisbeth Sørgård Kjøpstad, project manager for EDIH Oceanopolis at Nordic Edge, Senteco is a good example of what early-stage companies can gain from the program.
“Senteco shows how a structured process can help a technology-driven company see the market with fresh eyes. The greatest potential doesn’t always lie in building more technology; sometimes it lies in discovering that the technology you already have solves a different and bigger problem than you first thought. That’s the kind of clarity the EDIH program is designed to provide,” says Lisbeth Sørgård Kjøpstad, Project Manager for EDIH Oceanopolis at Nordic Edge
For Senteco, the conclusion is clear:
– Mentoring from EDIH Oceanopolis and Nordic Edge is a great program. I really appreciate feedback, especially from people who know the field or the areas we don’t. The barrier to entry has been low, and it’s not as intimidating as it might sound before you get started, ” concludes Jacob Berntsen, CEO of Senteco AS
