Emergent Connext takes on rural connectivity challenge for agriculture

The “last mile” is often brought up as a critical part of rural broadband. Startup Emergent Connext meanwhile is looking to bring connectivity to the “first acre,” said CEO Mike Roudi. Emergent Connext specializes in low-power wide area network Internet of Things technology, which basically transmits sensor data over long distances. The company recently landed over $5 million in additional funding to support IoT networks across six states—Arkansas, California, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Ohio. According to Roudi, Emergent’s tech is ideal for industries that can’t exactly “run extension cords over 2,000 acres of farmland.” While farmers may have internet access or Wi-Fi in their administrative offices, spreading that connectivity across hundreds of acres is a more complicated—and costly—story.