CROP HEALTH MONITORING STARTUP FLUROSAT SECURES $1.5 MILLION TO FUEL RAPID GROWTH

Agtech startup FluroSat has secured $1.5 million in funding for its crop health monitoring technology from CSIRO Main Sequence Ventures, AirTree Ventures, and strategic agricultural investors lead by CRDC.

In addition to the equity funding, Flurosat has also secured several grants with the help of deep tech startup Cicada Innovations and its Growlab accelerator program. To help farmers grow more with fewer resources, the company uses remote sensing technology, including hyperspectral cameras on satellites and drones, to monitor crop health from space.

Founder and CEO Anastasia Volkova said that while the funding would enable rapid growth, she was “most excited about the depth of experience of the investors supporting us”.

She continued, ““These investors have experience and knowledge in each of the major parts of FluroSat’s business: deep tech, crop health science, data analytics, and machine learning – as well as direct contacts with growers of high-value crops. This is almost as important as the financial injection.”

Volkova said the future of agriculture is in AI-assisted farming, where insights and suggestions gathered from satellite and weather data on a paddock level are served to farmers daily each morning to guide their decision making. She said FluroSat’s technology will also keep farmers abreast of long-term changes to yield sustainability, allowing them to adapt activity accordingly. Read more

James Harkness - Dynamic Business - 22 Dec 2017