March 30, 2022

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

Climate tech precision robotics company Beewise Technologies has closed on an $80 million Series C led by New York-based venture capital and private equity house Insight Partners. 

Fortissimo Capital, Corner Ventures, lool ventures, Atooro Fund, Meitav Dash Investments Ltd, and Sanad Abu Dhabi also participated in this round which brought the company’s total funding to more than $120 million.

Bees are our critical partners, safeguarding human well-being and the success of our agricultural production systems. They are a key component to food security, with one out of every three bites of food we eat being dependent on the work they do as pollinators. They ensure biodiversity, healthy ecosystems, and human nutrition, with 75 percent of the world’s fruit and seed crops dependent, at some level, on natural pollination for continued production.

From apples to almonds to alfalfa grown for cattle feed, every year crops valued at $20 billion depend on bees, however, in recent years there has been a widely tracked and steady decline in honeybee numbers due to a phenomenon that has come to be known as colony collapse disorder. This occurrence is generally marked by:

~ The sudden disappearance of a large percentage of worker bees from a hive.
~ Very few dead bees in the proximate area to the colony.
~ The queen and young bees (brood) remaining in the hive with ample honey and pollen, yet destined to die because a hive cannot support itself without worker bees.

Today, more than 30 percent of honeybee colonies are disappearing each year – a rate that not only is severely critical to farmers, but to our overall food security as well. And while various diseases, pests, and agrochemicals have been found to lead to colony collapse, the leading factor to hive and bee loss has been climate change. 

Founded in 2018 by Saar Safra, Hallel Schreier, Eliyah Radzyner, Yossi Sorin, and Boaz Petersil, Beewise is offering a cutting-edge solution through Beehome, its proprietary robotic beehive that utilizes 24/7 monitoring and smart technology that increases pollination capacity by detecting threats to a honeybee colony such as pesticides and the presence of pests. Once detected, the automatic robotic system takes the appropriate response in real time requiring no human intervention.

In addition, Beehome helps combat the negative effects of climate change on bees by being thermally regulated, protected from fires, flooding, and Asian wasps (also known as murder hornets), and by providing enhanced feeding technology for when forage is scarce or not available to the bees.

“We are the only company on the planet that is deploying precision robotics in tandem with the world’s most innovative technologies including AI and computer vision in order to save the bees,” said Saar Safra, CEO of Beewise. “Our Beewise team is thrilled to be supported by an incredible roster of investors for our Series C who understand our dedication, tenacity, and passion towards succeeding in saving the bees and reversing the trend of the bee colony collapse.”

Beehome has shown to reduce bee mortality by 80 percent, resulting in increased crop yields of at least 50 percent, while also eliminating about 90 percent of manual labor compared to the use of traditional beehives.

Currently, Beewise is managing more than 7 billion bees, which equates to 25,000 acres of pollinated crops. And over the course of the last 12 months has saved more than 160 million bees.

“Our entire global food supply is being threatened by a devastating collapse of the world’s honeybee population. Beewise impressed us as the only solution addressing every complex issue that is contributing to the collapse,” said Daniel Aronovitz, principal, Insight Partners. “Not only have we funded a company with a fantastic business model; it also addresses one of the biggest challenges our planet is facing. We at Insight couldn’t be more excited to lead the largest investment in an Israeli agtech company to date.”

The company has also released a new Beehome iteration that is 30 percent lighter, 32 percent smaller, and 23 percent more cost-effective to transport. It also has a more efficient feeding system and a harvesting system that takes 9 percent less time to harvest, resulting in a 5 percent-plus yield increase in honey production. These factors increase hive mobility, enabling farmers to more easily care for millions of bees for the success of seasonal crop pollination.

Company CEO Saar Safra touched upon what this funding will mean for the company’s direction, saying, “With thousands of orders placed in the U.S. in just the last few months, and with this funding, Beewise will be able to meet incredible market demand through increased manufacturing, develop additional product iterations, and further improve pollination.”

~ Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Oilseed & Grain News. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com. 

*The content put forth by Global AgInvesting News and its parent company HighQuest Partners is intended to be used and must be used for informational purposes only. All information or other material herein is not to be construed as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Global AgInvesting and HighQuest Partners are not a fiduciary in any manner, and the reader assumes the sole responsibility of evaluating the merits and risks associated with the use of any information or other content on this site.