Healtag – A Startup Innovation Boosting the Profitability of Reindeer Husbandry
Various Forms of Support for Product Development
Startup companies don’t always have all the necessary expertise or resources for product design. If a company needs support in the overall design of embedded systems—including electronics, software, and mechanical design—PehuTec is an excellent collaboration partner.
In addition to design expertise, PehuTec has extensive contacts across various sectors, such as component suppliers and device assemblers. This network can provide significant benefits for startups.
An IoT Solution to a Common Problem in Reindeer Husbandry
Anicare is a startup based in Oulu, Finland, focused on developing an IoT product that actively monitors the health of animals. The product is being launched for use in reindeer husbandry.
There are around 200,000 reindeer in Finland, and up to 10% of them die each year due to predators or traffic accidents. Of those, only 20% are ever found. This means that tens of thousands of animals remain lost in the forest, with no way to determine their cause of death or location. These unrecovered animals cause annual losses of millions of euros to the reindeer industry.
Anicare’s CEO, Aki Marttila, is a reindeer owner himself and is well aware of the scale of the problem. He has been involved in various startup and tech companies over the past decade, developing different types of consumer electronics products.
“IoT has been gaining more and more traction recently, bringing a variety of good technical solutions to the market. The size of the devices has decreased, and usability has improved,” says Marttila.
“In the reindeer industry, collar-based solutions have been used for some time, but usability and cost have been persistent issues. I saw an opportunity to develop a different kind of product to support reindeer husbandry. That’s where the idea for the Healtag product came from, and we’ve been working on its development ever since.”
Flexible Service and Expertise Made the Difference
Healtag monitors the vital signs of a reindeer, and the owner is notified of any anomalies almost in real time. The device utilizes NB-IoT network technology and is based on the Nordic Semiconductor nRF91 chip.
The project initially began as a school project. When it reached the stage where commercialization was possible, Anicare needed professionals to help finalize development and move into production.
Marttila had heard positive feedback about PehuTec and decided to reach out. After discussions, he became convinced that PehuTec would be a great partner for a small company like Anicare.
“They have solid expertise and are a flexible partner for a startup like ours. That’s why we decided to move forward with the project together with PehuTec,” Marttila says.
From Idea to Production Line
In practice, Anicare hired an electronics designer and a software designer from PehuTec, who worked at PehuTec’s own premises.
“I had the idea, and together we created a detailed specification of the device and a timeline, which allowed us to progress all the way to the production line,” Marttila explains.
PehuTec’s electronics designer, Antti Pruikkonen, was responsible for designing the device’s electronics from start to finish.
According to Pruikkonen, the biggest challenges in the project were balancing the device’s operating time, small mechanical size, and maximum weight.
“Based on the client’s requirements, I first designed the system architecture of the electronics and selected the most critical components for its operation. Once the system architecture was complete, the next steps were drawing the circuit diagram and designing the PCB layout. From these, the first prototypes were manufactured. Finally, we verified the device’s performance by measuring the critical parameters from the prototypes.”
Outsourcing Took the Product Across the Finish Line
The prototype, originally developed as a student project, had been tested to some extent in real-world conditions. However, with the help of PehuTec’s team, shortcomings were discovered—especially in meeting the required operating time in demanding environments. Together, it was decided that the critical components needed to be redesigned.
Aki Marttila says the product would not have reached completion without outsourcing.
“This kind of work is extensive and requires expertise from so many different areas that there’s no way I could have done it alone or with a small team. I’m extremely satisfied with the service I’ve received from PehuTec. They’ve listened to me with great flexibility, and our communication has worked exceptionally well. They’ve got true heavyweight professionals working on this,” Marttila praises.
The product became available to users at the beginning of 2020.
“Since then, we’ve been working to bring the product to a wider audience. Hopefully, every reindeer will one day have one of these buttons,” Marttila adds.
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