Artificial intelligence is still in its infancy, but it's growing extremely fast: valued at nearly $100 billion U.S. dollars, it's expected to grow twentyfold, up to nearly $2 trillion by 2030.
This technology is going to transform every industry, and farming is no exception. Already the technology is being used to optimize irrigation systems, monitor crops and soil, detect disease and pests, monitor livestock health, provide intelligent pesticide application, and predictive analytics for yield mapping, but the applications for AI in agriculture are seemingly endless.
This represents a big opportunity, and already there are a number of startups taking advantage of what's going to be a tremendous change in the industry:
Description: "Taranis is leading the AI-powered crop intelligence revolution, combining high-end tech with expert agronomy"
Founded: 2015
Total funding: $99.6 million
Last funding round: September 2022
Investors: Vertex Ventures, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, OurCrowd, Viola Ventures, Vertex Ventures Israel, Marc Benioff, Seraphim Space, Sumitomo, iAngels, Microsoft ScaleUp Tel Aviv, K3 Ventures, Mindset Ventures, Presidio Ventures, UMC Capital, Finistere Ventures, Cavallo Ventures, Vertex Growth Fund, Inven Capital, Kaedan Capital, La Maison Compagnie d'Investissement, Eyal Gura, Hitachi Ventures, Micron Ventures, La Maison Partners, eshbol, Gal Yarden, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Farglory Group
Description: "Smart spraying for ultra-localised treatments of your row crops, pastures and lawns"
Founded: 2014
Total funding: $83.1 million
Last funding round: May 2023
Investors: Yara Growth Ventures, Verve Ventures, Swisscom Ventures, Swisscanto, Flexstone Partners, Cibus Fund, BASF Venture Capital, Aqton SE, 4FO Ventures, Technology Fund, 4FO Ventures, Capagro, Business Angels Switzerland
Sentera
Description: "Driven by high-resolution imagery, we deliver the fastest and most reliable agronomic insights for agricultural leaders to make data-driven decisions that maximize outcomes, including quality, efficiency, and profitability."
Founded: 2014
Total funding: $64.2 million
Last funding round: May 2023
Investors: S2G Ventures, Continental Grain Company, Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec, Akroyd LLC, iSelect Fund, KuE Capital, Middleland Capital, AgFunder
Regrow Ag
Description: "Regrow unlocks the power of resilient agriculture to combat climate change and grow profitability."
Founded: 2016
Total funding: $63.6 million
Last funding round: May 2022
Investors: Rethink Impact, Time Ventures, M12, Artesian VC, Costanoa Ventures, AirTree Ventures, muru-D, Space Capital, Main Sequence Ventures, Rethink Impact, Cargill, Grantham Foundation, Ajax Strategies, Neglected Climate Opportunities, Galvanize Climate Solutions, Artesian Clean Energy Seed Fund, Artesian/GRDC GrainInnovate Fund, Cotton Research and Development Corporation
Verdant Robotics
Description: "Verdant Robotics drives the super-human farming revolution by unlocking transformative value through robotics and AI, digitizing the entire farm, acting on each cubic-centimeter to maximize quality and yield, and creating a more sustainable, profitable future for producers and consumers"
Founded: 2018
Total funding: $58 million
Last funding round: November 2022
Investors: SeaX Ventures, Cleveland Avenue, AgFunder, Autotech Ventures, Cavallo Ventures, DCVC Bio, Future Ventures, E²JDJ, Water Lemon Ventures
CropX
Description: "CropX is an easy-to-use yet powerful agronomic farm management system that connects farm data, real-time conditions and agronomic knowledge to provide guidance for successful and sustainable farming, while aggregating all agronomic farm data in one place for easy tracking and sharing."
Founded: 2013
Total funding: $55.6 million
Last funding round: April 2023
Investors: Yair Shamir, Reinke, Edaphon, Finistere Ventures, Aliaxis Group, NTT Finance, OurCrowd, Newtree Impact, NEC Corporation, Nebraska Angel Network, GreenSoil Investments, Armada Capital, Tal Capital, Innovation Endeavors, Germin8 Ventures, Sumitomo, SeedInvest, Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, Flex Lab IX, Bosch Ventures, Kreos Capital, Enterprise Angels
Aerobotics
Description: "We work with the agriculture industry to transform everyday farming operations, using technology that supports smarter business decisions and ensures a sustainable future."
Founded: 2014
Total funding: $26.8 million
Last funding round: December 2020
Investors: Endeavor Catalyst, Naspers Foundry, AfricInvest, FMO, Platform Investment Partners, Cathay Innovation, Bossanova Investimentos, Naspers Foundry, Paper Plane Ventures, AgFunder, Nedbank, Joe Caruso, 4Di Capital, Google Launchpad Accelerator, Savannah Fund, Bantam Group, Startupbootcamp
Bloomfield Robotics
Description: "Bloomfield leverages years of research and development in artificial intelligence and robotics at Carnegie Mellon University to improve the health and performance of specialty crops through automated, continuous and comprehensive plant-by-plant assessment and analysis."
Founded: 2019
Total funding: $15.9 million
Last funding round: January 2023
Investors: Oeneo SA, Kubota Corporation, SVG Ventures, 37 Angels, The Yield Lab Asia Pacific, Pax Momentum, NASA, Newchip, ARPA-E, National Grape Research Alliance, Carnegie Mellon University
Burro
Description: "We have built a smarter farming system incorporating user-friendly, autonomous robots that work side-by-side with farm workers to make agriculture more productive and sustainable"
Founded: 2017
Total funding: $12.7 million
Last funding round: September 2021
Investors: Radicle Growth, ff Venture Capital, F-Prime Capital, Village Capital, Everywhere Ventures, S2G Ventures, Toyota Ventures, Asimov Ventures, Cibus Fund, Radicle Growth, NextFab
OneSoil
Description: "OneSoil helps remotely monitor crops, increase yields, and reduce seed and fertilizer costs"
Founded: 2017
Total funding: $6.7 million
Last funding round: April 2021
Investors: PortfoLion Capital Partners, Almaz Capital, Bulba Ventures, Leo Lozner, Yury Melnichek
Agrow Analytics
Description: "We unify all your data to recommend the PLACE , the TIME and the exact AMOUNT you should water"
Founded: 2021
Total funding: €425,000
Last funding round: February 2022
Investors: GoHub Ventures
AirSmat
Description: "AirSmat's AI-powered platform boost sales, revenue, and sustainability for farmers and stakeholders, prioritizing climate resiliance"
Founded: 2019
Total funding: $100,000
Last funding round:
Investors: Zetogon
Intelia
Description: "Intelia enables real-time data flow of information between the farm and all other parts of the poultry value chain. By adding value to data collected using artificial intelligence, a better decision-making system is created that helps improve broiler productivity and sustainability."
Founded: 1999
Total funding: Unknown
Last funding round: May 2016
Investors: New Acres Capital, Capital Financière Agricole, Claude Bouchard, Dominic Desy
(Image source: datapopalliance.org)
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