By Lynda Kiernan
London-based Earth science startup Cervest announced it has raised £3.7 million (US$4.7 million) through an oversubscribed Pre-Series A round led by tech investor Future Positive Capital, and with backing from Astanor Ventures, and participation from the National Institute of Agricultural Botany.
Built on three years of work, Cervest’s team of leading scientists, mathematicians, developers, and engineers have combined knowledge of AI, imaging, machine learning, and Bayesian statistics, with modeling techniques from proven Earth sciences including meteorology, atmospheric science, hydrology, and agronomy to create a platform capable of analyzing billions of data points to forecast how shifts in climate will manifest in the future.
“Our world-class team has designed an Earth Science AI platform to quantify both short- and long-range risks to ensure mission-critical decisions are informed in real time,” said Iggy Bassi, founder and CEO, Cervest. “The potential is huge to radically alter the ability to quantify and personalize interconnected risks for users across any space and time at low cost and at mass scale.”
Using huge volumes of satellite imagery and probability theory, Cervest’s platform is able to accurately identify early-warning signals prefacing extreme weather events such as floods, high winds, and fires, and can also flag changes in soil health and water risk.
“According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), over 20 percent of economic losses due to natural disasters are absorbed by agricultural businesses worldwide with natural disasters accounting for approximately one quarter of annual crop losses,” states Bonnefield Investment Analyst, Jeremy Stroud in Part V of his GAI News Series A Shift in the Air: Weather Volatility, Environmental Disasters and Their Implication for Agriculture.
The company said that its forecasts are updated in real-time via a scalable personalized and filtered dashboard, and can be used by investors, insurers, farmers and agricultural co-operatives, CPGs, and public policy makers to transform their day-to-day strategic decision making and risk assessment.
“There are few winners in the wake of catastrophe, as production capacity, investor confidence, and local infrastructure all suffer,” noted Stroud. “As such, traditional portfolios consisting of public equity and fixed income assets are particularly vulnerable to natural disaster events due to their global interconnectedness.”
This vulnerability can be offset, however, according to Cervest, which gives an example, stating that its tech platform could give wheat growers early warning that their crop yields will not meet their targets set for the following year, giving farmers the ability to better manage their reserve stock, and policy makers to avoid food shortages.
“Our mission is to back companies that use deep tech – and the sharpest and most ambitious minds – to solve the world’s most pressing problems,” said Sofia Hmich, founder, Future Positive Capital. “Making crucial decisions in the face of climate uncertainty is one of them and Cervest is doing just that.”
“With reports suggesting we have fewer than 60 years of farming left unless drastic action is taken, the need for science-backed decisions could not be greater. Businesses and policy makers hold the key to change and with access to Cervest’s proprietary AI technology they can start to make that change a reality at low cost – before it’s too late.”
The Cervest platform and algorithms are currently being tested and refined by some of the world’s top companies including Syngenta, Lantmännen, and McVitie, and a beta version of the platform is expected to launch in Q1 2020. The initial geographic focus will be on European markets, with the entirety of Europe being mapped before the beta launch, after which mapping of the rest of the world will be completed.
As part of the funding round, Sofia Hmich, founder of Future Positive Capital, and George Coelho, co-founder of Astanor Ventures have joined the Cervest Board.
“We are delighted Future Positive Capital and Astanor Ventures have joined our journey,” said Bassi. “Our goal is to empower everyone to make informed decisions that improve the long-term resilience of our planet. Today decision-makers are struggling with climate uncertainty and extreme events and how they are affecting their business operations, assets, investments, or policy choices.”
– Lynda Kiernan is Editor with GAI Media and daily contributor to the GAI News and Agtech Intel platforms. If you would like to submit a contribution for consideration, please contact Ms. Kiernan at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.