SupPlant, an Israeli AgTech company has announced its recent funding round of $27 million. The company has said that the funds will be mainly used to accelerate its intention to digitally inform every irrigation recommendation on earth starting with helping farmers in South Africa among others.
The round is led by Red Dot Capital Partners with participation from Menomadin Foundation, Smart-Agro Fund, Mivtah Shamir, Deshpande Foundation, PBFS, Boresight Capital, and Maor Investments. The round brings SupPlants’s total funding to more than $46 million to date.
"The funds raised in this round will allow us to invest in the South African market and open other markets as well. We also plan to continue to develop our product in order to help farmers in South Africa fight climate change. It is far superior from any common practice available and is built for the vast majority of farmers on earth - smallholders that can’t afford access to hardware intense technology and unique knowledge,” said Ori Ben Ner, CEO of SupPlant.
New markets
SupPlant, as an Israel-based company that was also listed as TIME Magazines' Top 100 inventions of 2021, has said that it has taken advantage of the Abraham Accords and geopolitical changes in the region to open two new markets in the last year: UAE and Morocco.
As such, this $27 million funding round comes amidst global warming impacting South African farmers who are dealing daily with the unpredicted climate that is changing rapidly and the constant lack of irrigation water. SupPlant is generating climate-smart irrigation recommendations to help farmers in South Africa and around the world be more resilient to volatile weather events.
Using SupPlant's technology, farmers are able to improve yields, productivity and water use efficiency on a large scale. The technology combines data collected from soil, plant, and weather sensors to understand and identify the main parameters affecting the optimal performance of plants. Combining and analyzing all the data, in real time, using intelligent algorithms, SupPlant provides a precise irrigation plan and recommendations on daily and weekly bases to maximize crops and budget, putting away the uncertainties of climate change, varieties and growing conditions.
Data and technology to help South African farmers
SupPlant is making its technology available to South African farmers by what they report as "changing the basic concept of irrigation methods."
SupPlant’s database is one of the largest plant databases in the world, accumulated by data collected from 32 crops in 14 countries, covering growing conditions from dry arid regions of the Middle East to tropical conditions in central America. The sensors are placed on the plants and their surroundings which radiate the plant’s data to the cloud: how much water the plant actually needs to maximize growth. This data is translated through the use of artificial intelligence and big data to irrigation models, recommendations, and actionable insights. SupPlant is represented and distributed in South Africa by AECI Plant Health.
“We were impressed by SupPlant’s abilities and recent expansion into strategic markets. We were also inspired by their goal: working with smallholder farms, who usually do not have access to AgTech. Food security will be a major issue in coming years, and we feel certain SupPlant’s solution will have a stand-out role in it." said ” says Atad Peled, Principal at Red Dot.
As part of the conditions of the $27 million funding round, Atad Peled of Red Dot will join SupPlant’s Board of Directors.
— By Tefo Mohapi
