A South African starup has raised funding to expand its operations in the area of helping farmers with crop data to make the right decisions. Aerobotics is a company of engineers, agronomists, and data scientists. Its business is to devise hardware and software technology for precision agriculture anywhere in the world. Their tools are calibrated to generate insights for tree and fruit farmers to manage their resources optimally. Farmers are able to track trees, detect those that are unhealthy, and act decisively where needed. Yield is maximised and disease kept at bay.

With this $17m Series B round, Aerobotics plans to double down on this value proposition. The round was led by Naspers, the South Africa-based tech company and mega investor. Cathay AfricInvest Innovation and FMO – two existing investors – also participated, and were joined by Platform Investment Partners, another South African firm.

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The founders of Aerobotics describe it as a “proudly South African business.” James Peterson who co-founded the startup with Benji Meltzer, a former operations and logistics manager at Uber. Both of them lead a team of about 80 people based in Capetown and oversee commercial offices in the US, Australia and Portugal.  They say their services are deployed in 18 countries across Africa, Asia and Europe.

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Such an expansive footprint gives the startup a leading role as a technological mediator in the global race to provide enough food for the world’s growing population. As climate change distorts regular planting and harvesting seasons, farmers need more predictive powers to maximize output. Aerobotics wants to solve this challenge not just for Africa but for farmers everywhere. The US has become one of its core markets, causing their revenue to grow “in excess of an order of magnitude,” according to a statement.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry