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Aerobotics secures R8m seed funding

Sibahle Malinga
By Sibahle Malinga, ITWeb senior news journalist.
Johannesburg, 10 Aug 2017
James Paterson, founder of Aerobotics.
James Paterson, founder of Aerobotics.

Local aerial data analytics company Aerobotics has secured a joint R8 million seed funding round from technology venture capital firm 4Di and the Savannah Fund in Kenya.

Aerobotics was established in Cape Town in 2014 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Imperial College alumni, James Paterson and Benji Meltzer.

The company developed data analytics platform Aeroview, which uses satellites, drones and artificial intelligence to help farmers optimise crop performance and reduce input costs.

It provides farmers with data to track crop health, growth and moisture levels down to individual plants, and to action this data through variable-rate fertiliser maps and yield estimates.

Paterson says the R8 million investments will take Aerobotics to the next level. "The cash injection will be used to expand Aerobotics' sales and marketing capabilities. We are currently working on finalising a number of pilot projects with large agricultural, finance and insurance companies around the world.

"We couldn't have asked for better partners than 4Di and Savannah, who between them have a wealth of entrepreneurial experience, and we look forward to building our existing operations in Africa, as well as expanding further into the global precision-farming space."

Aerobotics says it has already proved itself useful to various stakeholders in the agricultural value chain, but has now turned its eye to disruption of the crop-insurance sector.

The company provides farmers and insurers with a solution to lower the current high costs of crop insurance by using drones to fly periodically over an insured farm, gathering multiple data-sets which are automatically uploaded and analysed to provide useful data to both insurer and farmer.

Anton van Vlaanderen, 4Di partner, believes the potential of drone technology will have a significant impact on existing business models. "The global drone industry is already sizeable and is highly lucrative. Spectral imagery, and the resultant data and analysis thereof, will add considerable value to a number of sectors, and the team at Aerobotics possesses a unique blend of exceptional skills and talent that will mount a serious challenge in a developing growth industry."

The company says it has built a solid client base of farmers and agricultural consultants in SA and the rest of the continent, as well as in Australia and the UK.

Mbwana Alliy, managing partner at Savannah Fund, says it's only a matter of time before the farming industry fully embraces drone technology. "We're looking to help Aerobotics scale across Sub-Saharan Africa, where drone use is still in its infancy. It will be particularly exciting to watch drone hardware costs fall to smartphone price levels, allowing even small-scale farmers to take advantage of their capabilities."

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