SA Startup Aerobotics Raises Additional USD 2Mn of Series A Funding Round

Cape Town-based data analytics startup Aerobotics has announced the expansion of Series A funding round from USD 2 Mn to USD 4 Mn.

“We are proud to have made the announcement about expanding our Series A funding round to $4 million at the launch of our new offices in De Waterkant,” said Aerobotics Co-Founder and CEO James Paterson. “We are grateful that Paper Plane Ventures has put their faith and capital in our company, which we will use to expand our growth in South Africa, the United States and around the world and increase our ability of helping farmers and partners in the agriculture industry.”

The expansion of the funding round became realised following a deal Aerobotics signed with Paper Plane Ventures. The deal brings the total funding to USD 4.6 Mn.

Aerobotics provides farmers across the globe with pest and disease management systems for tree crop protection management by employing the use of drones,satellite data and artificial intelligence.

The company that co-founded by James Paterson (CEO) and Benji Meltzer back in 2014 enables farmers identify early stage problems using their software, Aeroview. It is used with the Aerobotics’ Aeroview Scout App available on their smart phones to identify areas with challenges. The technology analyses individual trees, measure their health and further advising farmers about potential problems and how they can be solved.

So far, the startup has succeeded in identifying problematic areas in 22 mn trees.
Aerobotics co-founder and CEO James Paterson disclosed that the additional funding will be employed to further expand the company’s presence in South Africa, the US and elsewhere. The startup has deployed team members in US states of Florida and California.

The Nedbank-backed startup made known that they will soon be unveiling the first natural step to automated, accurate yield estimation with a new tool for farm yield management.

The yield management tool will enable farmers reach better-informed decisions on how much fruit to thin during the early stages of the season to ensure increased yields. This technology will be commercially available in the United States at the beginning of the 2019 growing season.

Aerobotics’ new headquarter is based in De Waterkant in Cape Town’s central business district. The town is known to be the most productive technology sector in Africa and currently, it employs approximately 50, 000 people. A report by Endeavor Insight dubbed ‘Evaluation and Network Analysis of the Caper Town-Stellenbosch Tech Sector”s indicates that the city has 450 tech hubs. The size of the city’s working tech population is double that of Lagos and Nairobi combined.