Dutch development financier FMO is investing R42.75 million (US$2.5m) in Aerobotics, a South African Agritech startup.
FMO plans to make the investment from its Building prospects fund, which would support the company’s operations, expansion and technology development.
In May this year, the agri-tech company secured R100 million (US$5.5 million) in funding from Naspers through its early-stage business funding initiative Naspers Foundry.
It is just over a year since Aerobotics expanded its Series A funding round to US$4 million after securing an additional US$2 million investment from Paper Plane Ventures.
Prior to that it had launched a batch of new products and secured US$2 million as part of its Series A round.
It has now more than doubled its total raised funding with a R100 million (US$5.5 million) investment from Naspers Foundry.
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A Look At What Startup Aerobotics Does
Founded in Cape Town in 2014, Aerobotics uses aerial imagery from drones and satellites, and blends them with machine learning algorithms to provide early problem detection services to tree and wine farmers and optimise crop performance.
The startup’s cloud-based application Aeroview provides farmers with insights, scout mapping and other tools to mitigate damage to tree and vine crops from pest and disease.
“Our journey is only just beginning, but already Aerobotics has demonstrated success in our ability to collect and analyse tree and fruit-level information, which are critical to the agricultural industry. We have seen great support from commercial-scale farmers and, more recently, crop insurance companies in the US who require accurate tree-level information about their clients,” said CEO Paterson.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer