By Lynda Kiernan
BASF Venture Capital and Canada’s TELUS Ventures have joined a Series B for British startup Hummingbird Technologies, joining existing investors including Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company (SALIC), which led US$8.84 million in funding for the startup in May of this year, and the British investment firm Downing Ventures, to bring the round to $10 million.
“We have a clear target to become the leading global remote sensing player in agtech, and with such strong institutional backers, and technical expertise behind us, our journey towards achieving this goal has gathered serious momentum,” said Will Wells, CEO, Hummingbird Technologies.
Founded at the Imperial College Technology Incubator by William Wells in 2016, London-based Hummingbird is an advanced crop analytics company that combines the power of AI, satellite imagery, and drone technology to generate high-resolution maps that can give farmers early detection of crop stress, disease and weed issues, and early yield prediction.
The company’s unique deep learning and imagery analytics solution uses proprietary algorithms driven by aerial images captured from satellites, planes, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to create precise forecasts, calculate fertilizer requirements, locate potential pest infestations, plant diseases, or planting gaps, and to offer real-time, actionable recommendations to improve performance through the management of operations and inputs.
Within 24 hours Hummingbird can provide farmers, agronomists, or managers with in-field zone maps for the targeted application of fertilizers, crop protection products, or growth regulators, and for subsequent plantings.
Hummingbird’s main clients are progressive farmers using the technology to raise efficiency in managing their existing operations for greater cost savings and higher yields. And of the 2.2 billion global hectares of farmland, the startup sees the most potential for the expansion of its platform in Russia, Ukraine, China, the U.S., Australia, Canada, Brazil, and the UK.
Integral to these goals, Hummingbird is planning a selective launch across one million acres in the U.S. and Canada in 2020, according to AFN, prior to a full roll-out the following year. This is in addition to covering 400,000 acres of farmland owned by the Saudi Arabian kingdom across Ukraine and Australia.
“We are delighted to have received investment from BASF and TELUS Ventures,” said Wells. “The investment will allow us to augment our leading position in core international markets, to pursue expansion opportunities that involve Application Program Interface (API) software integration and to extend our machine learning advantage at both a team and code level.”
Members of BASF’s Agricultural Solution division have already been working with Hummingbird, and agricultural professionals from BASF UK have been working with the startup since 2016 supplying aerial images to farmers that have been analyzed by Hummingbird generating detailed maps of various in-field zones for precision farming applications.
“We believe innovative companies like Hummingbird – that provide farmers with data-driven, user friendly platforms to drive decisions – have the potential for wide-scale adoption as farmers increasingly look for tools to improve their bottom lines and reduce their environmental impact,” said Rich Osborn, managing partner, TELUS Ventures. “Through our investment, we have the potential to change cultivation and help mature technology platforms to connect all aspects of the farm and food supply chain.”