Airware’s venture capital fund, the Commercial Drone Fund, has made an undisclosed investment in Raptor Maps, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based developer of a drone-enabled platform for agricultural market.
Launched by CEO Nikhil Vadhavkar and co-founder Edward Obropta, Raptor Maps has developed a precision technology system for the agriculture sector that uses drones, as well as tractor-mounted sensors and software that allows farmers to map, analyze, and measure the quality and health of their crops at any chosen points during the growing season. The knowledge gained will enable farmers to make informed decisions regarding production practices that will result in the maximum crop yield while reducing costs and labor.
In addition, the company’s technology allows farmers to carry out analysis on A/B testing conducted on different fertilizers, seed varieties, pest control chemicals, and production methods to determine which product offers the greatest efficacy for fruit and vegetable production. The company is currently in development on a software tool that will bring this technology to all crops.
“Until now, drone technology has been more of a curiosity in agriculture,” said Nikhil Vadhavkar, CEO of Raptor Maps in a recent company statement. “Farmers would receive maps with generic metrics like ‘crop stress’, but the actionability and ability to calculate a return-on-investment was limited. We are now able to ground truth the drone data and perform statistical analyses to show a farmer the value they are receiving from their practices in absolute, rather than relative, terms.”
The Commercial Drone Fund
The Commercial Drone Fund is the venture capital arm launched by Airware, a drone company that offers drone-enabled technological solutions platforms for the mining and quarrying, construction and insurance sectors.
Under its investment structure, the fund makes targeted investments in early-stage companies that are developing technologies that will act to scale-up drone technology across a range of sectors. Areas of interest for the fund include, sensor hardware, software application, data analytics, industry-specific applications, and drone services that provide unique business value.
This investment in Raptor Maps marks the fourth investment by the fund according to the fund’s website, bringing Raptor into its existing portfolio that includes Sky-Futures, a drone enabled data capture and analysis company; Red Bird, a developer of industry-specific solutions that are able to large amounts of drone data in the cloud; and Cape Productions, a professional videographer service that uses drones to film its customers’ experiences at ski resorts.
“The agriculture sector has been an early adopter of commercial drone technology, with several companies now offering products for monitoring crops,” explained John Kolaczynski, head of corporate development for the Commercial Drone Fund.
“What impressed us with Raptor Maps’ product is that it collects a vast amount of data, distills it down, and correlates actions that a grower can take on a season-to-season basis — something we haven’t seen in other drone products. We believe this is a great product for the agriculture sector that can drive increased yields and reduced costs for growers.”
Setting itself apart is a critical accomplishment when aiming to gain financial backing in the increasingly crowded drone technology sector, particularly after the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) relaxed its regulations affecting commercial drone usage this August.
As technologies mature, farmers gain confidence, and adoption rates increase, Research and Markets estimates in its report, “Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Market – Global Forecast to 2022” that the unmanned aerial vehicle market could be worth up to $28.3 billion by 2022, reflecting a CAGR of 13.51 percent.
-Lynda Kiernan