AgroScout raises $7.5 million to expand its AI-based agronomy analytics service

AgroScout announced that it has completed a Series A investment round of $7.5 million to expedite the development of its AI cloud platform for remote agronomy, and to increase its accessibility to the 500 million mostly unserved farms worldwide. The platform allows all growers – from the biggest to the smallest – to efficiently comply with the rising demand for sustainable crop protection and carbon accountability. The investment round was led by Kibbutz Yotvata. Other investors include Agriline (a trust of which Vincent Tchenguiz is a discretionary beneficiary), Kibbutz Yiron, The Trendlines Group (SGX: 42T) (OTCQX: TRNLY), several private investors, and a grant from the Israel Innovation Authority.

The AgroScout platform collects data to create powerful analytics for actionable insights in crop management. AgroScout monitors the crop from emergence stand count, through canopy coverage estimates, and plant biomass, throughout the season. The platform also continuously monitors for pests and disease, decreasing pesticide use by early detection when infestation levels are low and curative treatments are highly effective, predicting regional outbreak tendencies. The platform enables improved yield predictions prior to harvest, and delivers farmers, agribusinesses, and food manufacturers an affordable way to build more competitive, sustainable, and environment-friendly food and agriculture supply chains.

AgroScout's mission is to best leverage AI cloud computing and the availability of low-cost digital imaging to bring efficient, sustainable, and accountable farming to the 95% of the 500 million unserved farms of the world. The AgroScout platform offers 5 layers of interlaced data analysis to counter yield loss. It does so by leveraging user-generated data, collected with off-the-shelf drones and mobile phones, to provide an affordable early detection agronomy solution. AgroScout eliminates the need for costly drones, field operators and long training. Farmers purchase their own low cost drones and receive minimal training to get started. The company's uniqueness lies in its low cost data collection and in the simplicity of the system for the grower.

On-going national projects, in conjunction with multinational corporations, growers, and crop protection companies, as well as a growing individual customer base, are now under way in the United States, Latin America, South Africa and Israel.

AgroScout CEO Simcha Shore comments, "Our decision to rely fully on stable off-the-shelf hardware has paid off and allowed us to focus our efforts on our remote agronomy analytics, positioning AgroScout as a true anywhere, anytime provider. We are now proud to bring on new partners to expand our platform to almost any field crop and to offer sustainable and efficient remote agronomy services to most of the 500 million unserved growers."

Dubi Goldman, Business Development Manager of Kibbutz Yotvata remarks, "We believe in investing in breakthrough agriculture technologies and AgroScout perfectly matched what we were looking for. As farmers of over 60 years, working in difficult desert areas, we appreciate the tremendous value AgroScout brings to growers."

Vincent Tchenguiz, of Agriline and Chairman of Consensus Business Group, remarked, "Agroscout not only serves millions of growers worldwide, it also serves the planet. Its top of the line AI-based platform makes any farmer's life mission of crop protection easier and more efficient, all while complying with de-carbonizing the global economy."

David Kronberg, Kibbutz Yiron and an AgroScout board member, comments, "Kibbutz Yiron, a previous investor in AgroScout, is happy to be investing in this round, as well. Early on the kibbutz saw the breakthrough potential in the team and the technology. As farmers with decades of experience in field crops and orchards, we recognized a company with real solutions for improving current agriculture practices. Since our initial investment, the company has reached substantial goals in marketing and technology. Our current investment is a vote of confidence in the company."

A private investor: "For me, a good investment is not only a good financial investment but investing in the future of the world, the well-being of my children and next generations to come."