American consumers want to know more about the food they eat. At the same time, ranchers and animal health officials are looking for cost-effective ways to better track animals and improve safety along the food chain.

That’s where LimeLight Technologies LLC of Overland Park plans to bridge the gap. The company wants to use SmartTraak, a cloud-based mobile technology, to trace an animal as it moves from feedlots to slaughterhouse and eventually to grocers or restaurants for consumption.

“We can’t make it safer, but we can provide the visibility of information,” said LimeLight President and CEO Marv Jahde.

The idea of collecting animal health information isn’t exactly new. Many ranchers already use RFID ear tags or other means to track key data on their own animals. But SmartTraak takes it to a new level. The software can capture data from existing data carriers such as RFID and visual ear tags, bar codes and QR codes, and pull it onto one centralized system to create an inventory management database, providing visibility up and down the supply chain.

Jahde said it opens the door on countless opportunities. Ranchers, veterinarians and government animal health officials could better track animal diseases. Consumers could see exactly where their filet mignon has been.

Help from the Sandbox

Yet without the capital to conduct crucial market research, LimeLight’s work was challenged—that is until Digital Sandbox KC came along this year.

LimeLight was one of the first six companies selected by the Digital Sandbox to receive financial backing and crucial advice for getting started. The Digital Sandbox launched earlier this year and is designed specifically to provide proof-of-concept assistance for early-stage tech companies.

Digital Sandbox has a goal to generate 10 new high-growth businesses by next fall. So it carefully chose its first companies to back. LimeLight stood out among 94 applications originally submitted to the Sandbox, officials said.

“They had developed a proof-of-concept model but needed verification that the required and most requested features, from an end-user standpoint, would be included in the product release,” said Jeff Shackelford, director of Digital Sandbox KC.

The timing could be key for LimeLight.

States are working to implement new USDA regulations aimed at improved tracking for animal health. The government wants better reporting as the watch continues for diseases including bovine spongiform encephalopathy or so-called mad cow disease. Many ranchers and farmers already track their animals in some fashion. But that software isn’t designed to be shared or communicated easily with state animal health officials, veterinarians and others.

The LimeLight technology, he believes, is an ideal solution.

“This whole system is cloud-based, so it lives on a centralized server,” Jahde said. “You simply access it by a smartphone, a tablet device or a laptop.” LimeLight is compatible with most existing tracking devices, making it cost-effective, Jahde said. The system uses the same gold standards that many major retailers use to track inventory.

A Full (and Fully Informed) Plate

Jahde envisions a customer scanning a QR code at the grocery store or on a restaurant menu to see the exact source of an item.

As shoppers become more selective about their food, he thinks this could play a big role in marketing, especially for specialty brands advertising themselves as organic, grass-fed or antibiotic-free.

He also sees a big use for it when it comes to recalls, which often require meat suppliers to call back much more inventory than necessary.

LimeLight has been approved for the Kansas Angel Investor Tax Credit program. But one of the biggest milestones to date has been Digital Sandbox assistance, which provided help with market research.

Digital Sandbox KC will pay for a market research firm to study the size of LimeLight’s potential customer base—work that the startup couldn’t otherwise afford at this point.

Jahde already has years of industry experience, so he has a deep understanding of the startup’s potential clients, but the market research will give him hard data that he can take to potential investors.

“I was constantly getting the question: ‘Well, give me some data. Who is going to buy this? What cattle producers need this? Do the packing houses need it?’” he said. “I didn’t have hard data.”

Preliminary data already suggests LimeLight might direct its early marketing efforts to large animal veterinarians. But there’s still much to learn, Jahde said.

The entrepreneur isn’t wasting any time. He knows the market is there.

“Having a safe food supply is really very important. As consumers have become more knowledgeable there are a high percentage of people who say, ‘I want more information on the food I’m buying,’” he said. “It really has a ripple effect.”