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The Future of Precision Agriculture: Ag-tech startups raise hundreds of millions to bring AI and robotics to the farm
- December 1, 2017: Vol. 4, Number 12

The Future of Precision Agriculture: Ag-tech startups raise hundreds of millions to bring AI and robotics to the farm

by CB Insights

Agricultural tech startups have raised more than $800 million over the past five years, funding startups aiming to solve agricultural challenges using technologies ranging from artificial intelligence to robotics. These types of ag-tech funding deals started gaining momentum in 2014, on the strength of funding from venture capital firms such as Bessemer Venture Partners, Accel Partners, Khosla Ventures, Lux Capital and Data Collective, which have invested in general-purpose drone and computer vision companies with a focus on agricultural applications.

Among the companies backed by the VCs are DJI and Orbital Insight, as well as ag-tech startups like Blue River Technology. Major ag players such as Monsanto and Syngenta are also active ag-tech investors.

Technologies that allow the analysis of satellite images provide a macro-level understanding of agricultural practices. Geo-spatial data can provide information on crop distribution patterns across the globe and the impact of weather changes on agriculture, among other applications. Other startups are using machine learning and computer vision algorithms to classify data and extract meaningful information from millions of such satellite images.

Orbital Insight has raised $79 million, including a $50 million round in first quarter 2017, from investors including Lux Capital, Sequoia Capital and Google Ventures. One of its products is a model for predicting crop yield.

The in-field monitoring category includes drone manufacturers with a focus on agriculture, as well as startups working on computer vision algorithms to process the data captured by drones and other on-field cameras. Drone manufacturing startups focused on tasks such as site inspection and surveying for agriculture and construction completed 41 deals during 2016 — the largest number of deals among the enterprise robotics categories in 2016, up from 22 in 2015.

On the software side, Prospera uses learning-based computer vision technology for monitoring crops in real time.

There are also startups, such as Indigo Agriculture, developing technologies that assess crop and soil heat to predict the effect of various microbes on plant health and identify genetic mutations in pathogens that may be harmful for the plant, among other things.

During second quarter 2017, Benson Hill Biosystems raised $25 million to help underwrite its development of a cognitive engine, called CropOS, to identify genetic pathways in plants that can improve photosynthesis. In third quarter 2016, Massachusetts-based Indigo Agriculture raised a $100 million round of funding from the Alaska Permanent Fund and Flagship Pioneering.

The agricultural robots category is manufacturing ground robots that perform various agricultural tasks. For example, Blue River Technology is developing robots that use computer vision to “see and spray” weeds on cotton plants. The National Science Foundation grantee is backed by VCs Data Collective and Khosla Ventures.

Abundant Robotics, which spun out of SRI International in 2016, has raised $10 million from Google Ventures and Yamaha Motor Ventures to develop apple-picking robots.

Other new ag-tech companies are developing “predictive analysis” technologies that offer seasonal analysis and model different market scenarios, among other applications. Count among them Spain-based ec2ce, which raised $1 million during the first quarter of this year, and Colorado-based aWhere, which raised $7 million from AgFunder, Aravaipa Ventures and Elixir Capital during third quarter 2014, as well as a $3 million convertible note round the following year.

 

This article was excerpted from a report by CB Insights. To read the full report, go to this link: https://bit.ly/2wRqKax

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