High-resolution precision agriculture aerial imagery provider Taranis announced its successful closing on $20 million in Series B funding led by Viola Ventures. Existing investors participating in the round include Finistere Ventures, Vertex Ventures, OurCrowd, Eyal Gura, and Gal Yarden. Nutrien, Cavallo Ventures, the venture capital arm of Wilbur-Ellis, and Sumitomo Corporation Europe also joined the round as new strategic investors.
Founded in 2013 by Ofir Schlam, Asaf Horvitz, Eli Bukchin and Ayal Karmi, and based in Tel Aviv, Taranis uses patented aerial imagery technology that when affixed to high-speed UAVs and manned aircraft, can provide more than 500 times the detail compared to existing monitoring platforms.
The company has also built an extensive database that implements deep learning algorithms and data science to identify crops stresses such as weeds, pests, and diseases on a granular level. This information in acted upon by the company to transform it into actionable insight that give farmers the potential to increase yields by 7.5 percent.
“Taranis’ technology is bridging the gap between the growing demand for food and the lack of supply of labor and resources required for intensive farming,” said Mike Wilbur, president at Cavallo Ventures. “The combination of their highly accurate imagery tools and unique database of innumerable plant, disease, and insect types will empower farmers to grow their crops better and smarter.”
Taranis’ platform also enables farmers to minimize ag chemical applications, from pesticides to herbicides and fertilizers, resulting in a quantifiable benefit to the environment, increased sustainability, and lower production costs for growers of key crops including soybeans, corn, wheat, cotton, sugarcane, and potatoes.
“After analyzing the digital farming industry, we proudly chose Taranis to be our first investment in this space,” said Zvika Orron, partner at Viola Ventures. “Taranis has all the necessary ingredients to become the leader in farm digitalization: a comprehensive precision agriculture solution, leading industry partners to scale and penetrate the market and a passionate team making it all happen. Taranis’ solution provides both the diagnosis of the problem as well as the cure.”
This round follows the company’s $7.5 million Series B completed in May of 2017 which was led by Finistere Ventures, and including Vertex Ventures, Eshbol Investments, Mindset Ventures, OurCrowd, and angel investor Eyal Gura.
“Farmers are currently faced with poor commodity prices and want to manage their costs – from crop protection to fertilizer – more effectively,” said Arama Kukutai, co-founder and partner of Finistere Ventures, at the time. “We believe higher resolution, real-time data is a requirement for the digital farming revolution, but new solutions have to pay for themselves rapidly. Taranis is taking the next generation of technology for farmers well beyond simply being able to look at a field.”
Earlier this year, Taranis announced its acquisition of San Francisco-based Mavrx – a move that created an unprecedented aerial imagery platform. The deal added Mavrx’s UHR imagery solution to Taranis’ existing product and services portfolio, giving current Mavrx and Taranis clients access to a powerful combination of aerial imagery products and precision agriculture services for their fields.
With its fleet of 60 planes in 30 states across the U.S., Mavrx delivers 8 cm-per-pixel resolution images capable of recognizing and classifying weeds, diseases, insects, and nutrient deficiencies on a single leaf at a resolution of 0.5 millimeters from a plane while flying at 120 miles per hour or from drones at 30 miles per hour.
With the capital raised through this fund, which bring total funding for the company to $30 million, Taranis plans to pursue expanding its global reach and presence.
“We are excited to advance our mission of providing farmers with the technology and know-how to effectively maximize crop yields while maintaining operational efficiency,” said Ofir Schlam, CEO and Cofounder of Taranis. “We have already helped thousands of farmers monitor crops for potential hazards. Now we’re looking forward to expanding our footprint around the globe.”
-Lynda Kiernan