Inter Connect Point LLC. provides innovative solutions that leverage leading market technologies, such as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), advanced data models, and Artificial Intelligence, leading research and development for people and machine-to-machine (M2M) connections. Our founding experience is Agri-Tech and Agri-industry processing automation, rare earth mineral exploration, smart city solution designs, development, and implementation.
Our Tea Challenge
With more than 20 million tea farmers and over 500 tea factories across the African continent, the region’s market is valued at over $25 billion and growing. It is estimated that consistent quality can improve tea farm and factory revenues by up to 50%.
Inter Connect Point is pioneering the tea industry by offering a “Data Analytics as a Service” technology solution with tested proof-of-concept setups in Rwanda, Uganda, and Kenya.
The company’s ground industry research was presented in the 2023 Global Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things (GCAIoT) held in Dubai. The research and implementation approaches have been published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), accessible at the IEEE website. Tea, scientifically known as camellia sinensis is widely consumed here in the Middle East and worldwide. It is popular due to its advantage in various areas, ranging from medicinal qualities such as antibacterial, antiquaries, anti-cancer, anti-allergy, anti-obesity, etc. to a unique flavor.
Tea production globally – mainly the largely consumed black tea – relies on human sensory analysis to determine optimum oxidation levels to produce customer-desired tea-grade quality. This process is subject to errors of omission resulting from unpredictable human insensitivity and variability due to individualistic differentiations leading to inconsistency in the produced tea quality. As a result, quality is often compromised, market demand and prices fluctuate, and thus unpredictable returns to manufacturers and farmers.
The data analytics-as-a-service model solution developed by Inter Connect Point improves agro-processing and energy usage, and so contributes to generating higher revenues. Inter Connect Point has earned recognition among others, the Top 10 Winner for the 2018 African Innovation Prize, Next Einstein Forum Fellows, and received grants from Carnegie Mellon University through their Industry Innovation Lab based in Rwanda and the MasterCard Foundation.
Our Technologies
Inter Connect Point offers an Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) technology solution that supplements the tea production process. This is accomplished by using low-power end-node sensor devices assembled to form an electronic nose (e-Nose) comprising different gas, temperature, and humidity sensors to detect variations in reactive components until pre-set optimum oxidation mean levels are realized. Data from the sensors is sent through a wireless gateway and transmitted to an analytics database.
A web-based visualization platform relays sensor data with the ability to provide real-time monitoring of considered reactive elements and compounds during the tea oxidation period. This ensures that there is monitoring, traceability, prediction, and actuation upon attainment of the desired set values. This control results in improved consistency of black tea quality production, which allows tea processors to earn predictable and consistent revenues from each bushel of tea harvested.
The solution developed by Inter-Connect Point can be expanded to improve the efficiency of many agro-industries, such as coffee and cocoa. The company also plans to improve factory design and energy usage, including optimizing the usage in burning wood in the drier chambers.
In line with the sustainability mission, Inter-Connect Point wants to help manufacturing firms identify alternative sustainable sources and optimized ways of drying and powering these energy-demand processes, reducing their carbon footprint.
The Markets
Tea currently trades over $25 billion annually in Africa and is expected to grow by an average of 3-5% % annually. There are over 500 tea factories in Africa that should benefit from our solutions, with about 10 or more users from each factory interacting with our data, software, and hardware daily. Tea auctioning companies seek guidance from our solution data analytics for informed decisions about which factories consistently produce according to market requirements, with respect to global customer concerns or pain points. Global customer clusters are intermediaries that benefit from our work, having to trace how their tea (food) has been processed.
Milestones
Our first proof-of-concept tested customer (Rwanda Mountain Tea Ltd), our advisors, and team all see tremendous potential for our Electronic Nose “eNose” solutions and data-analytics-as-a-service’’ technology to improve the quality, control, and revenues throughout the tea industry, before expanding our footprint into other products processing such as coffee and cocoa.
For the first time in tea processing history, our solution approaches bring relief to tea producers from using untraceable, inconsistent, tedious, imaginary, and yet costly tests and detectors in assessing the degree of ambient tea processing conditions, which lead to failure in reproducing consistent qualitative results for the final tea product. Our innovation will result in increased objectivity, reliability, stability, precision, and increased revenues to tea processors from an analytical approach to tea cultivation, weathering, cutting and tearing, fermentation, preservation, storage, and sale.
Inter Connect Point’s approaches augment human and basic hand-held sensory capabilities in tea processing. According to our academic research and discussions with academic “eNose” and tea experts in India, China, and other global tea processing locations, our approaches have leapfrogged in tea processing to have an implemented objective analytical solution supplementing expert judgment.
The company is strategically positioned to successfully and continuously innovate in collaboration with existing world leader eco-systems, from world class research access through academia such as research under its Industry Innovation Lab spaces; the reliance on resilient data communication platforms through supporters such as Inmarsat (now Viasat); competent industrial sensor manufacturing collabrations such as with Alphasol, tested markets, and leapfrogging with leading technology approaches, and locating building works in the heart of global technology hubs such as the United Arab Emirates.
Business Brief
From a commercialization perspective, we are offering this to tea factories similar to a data “analytics-as-a-service” model where we maintain ownership of the complete IIoT and analytics system, and a tea factory pays for installation at the outset as well as ongoing analytics access, so they can refine their process. The pricing would be designed so that the tea factory could reap 10 times the value of their investment while we are still making a healthy profit. Other business and commercial models are being explored as well.
We talk to leaders of tea processing companies from our existing network of supporters and advisors. Upon introduction, we schedule a time and provide the tea processing MDs a presentation that reflects the economic value they would receive and invite them to visit our first customer locations with whom we have good relations. Upon gaining their further interest, we contract to serve customers directly to ensure all needs are met, as we closely listen. Following successful installs at a critical mass of customers, we receive inquiries and have professional sales teams follow up to develop business and close activations.