Posted on by Miguel Granier

Ag tech developments

Given our interest in agricultural technology, we are always interested to hear about new advancements in the space. The following articles describe a wide range of recent developments that will impact the ag tech sector now and in the years to come.

Agtech Company aWhere To Launch Crowdfunding Campaign on AgFunderby Samantha Hurst on Crowdfund Insider
Following up on our portfolio company OnFarm’s successful AgFunder campaign, in which the ag tech firm raised double its initial target investment of $400,000, Colorado-based aWhere is aiming to similarly benefit from the increasingly popular trend of crowdfunding. aWhere uses hyper-specific weather data to provide actionable recommendations to the 500 million farmers in developing and emerging markets without access to advanced agricultural technology. The company, aiming to raise $4 million in this AgFunder equity financing round, has already hit $1.2 million of investment with more than two months still left in the campaign.

FAA approves first commercial drone over landby Bart Jansen on USA Today
In a significant development for the future of UAVs and “drones,” the Federal Aviation Administration for the first time ever awarded permission for the commercial use of a drone over U.S. land. Oil giant BP will use a Puma AE to survey pipelines and equipment at the company’s Prudhoe Bay site in Alaska. This is an encouraging step towards the commercialization of drones in the United States, a move that could be hugely beneficial to the precision agriculture sector. Farmers can use drones for countless tasks ranging from precision seeding to scanning crops for nutrient levels, and it estimated that 90% of all drone sales in the United States will be for agricultural purposes.

COA promoting investment in agriculture-tech companieson The China Post
Taiwan’s Council of Agriculture has established a matchmaking platform to encourage venture capitalists to invest in agriculture technology; the first event was held June 11th and brought 13 agritech companies and 60 venture capital firms together. Over the next four years, the COA aims to attract NT100 million ($3.3 million USD) in investment for small agritech firms. The council will then continue to assist the companies in growth efforts such as obtaining additional funding and going public on both the main and over-the-counter stock markets.

Invested Development Invests in iProcure to Improve Access to Farming Inputs in Kenya
We hope that you saw our recent announcement of investment in iProcure, a provider of software to facilitate sales and inventory management in rural agriculture markets in Africa. An innovative combination of agriculture technology and information and communication technology (ICT) solutions, iProcure is a perfect fit for ID’s BSP fund which focuses on seed stage equity investments in companies using technology to overcome the world’s greatest challenges.

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