Israeli precision agriculture hardware-software solution company SupPlant is planning to accelerate its penetration into the South African market after raising $10 million (R137 million). The raise brings SupPlants’s total funding to more than $19 million (R260 million).
The round comes amidst global warming impacting South African farmers who are dealing daily with the unpredicted climate that is changing rapidly causing tropical storms, cold spells, heat waves and constant lack of irrigation water.
SupPlant is helping farmers cope with climate change by making its technology that changes the basic concepts of irrigation more available in the South African market.
“The funds raised in this round will allow us to speed up implementation of our technology in South Africa with the support of our partners AECI Plant Health. It is far superior from any common practice available” said Ori Ben Ner, CEO of SupPlant.
“We aim to reach as many South African farmers as possible and help them use less water and produce more and better fruit.”
This unique technology saves water, reduces costs, improves productivity and yield. SupPlant uses agronomic algorithms, artificial intelligence, and cloud-based technology to help farmers achieve these goals.
SupPlant measures the stress of the plant and monitors water content alongside plant and fruit growth patterns with sensors located on four parts of the plant. This data is then combined with real-time and forecasted climatic data and creates a plant-based monitoring tool for farmers to follow their crops in real-time. All this info is then uploaded every 10 minutes to an algorithm in the cloud, which provides simple, precise irrigation recommendations to farmers based on the integration of all this data.
SupPlant’s database holds the combined expertise of 31 crops across 14 countries, covering growing conditions from dry arid regions of the Middle East to tropical conditions in central America.
SupPlant’s vision is that its technology will be integrated into every irrigation command given on earth. SupPlant experienced growth of 1200% in 2020, and is widely used in Mexico, Australia and Argentina. SupPlant is represented and distributed in South Africa by AECI Plant Health.
“In a world at risk to the destructive impacts of a changing climate, SupPlant’s solution—seek actionable insight farmers can turn into smart irrigation decisions, by “talking with” the plants that produce our foods—is a concrete example of how technology can improve our world,” said Jeffrey Swartz, Partner at Boresight, the former CEO of Timberland and a leader of in the sustainable commerce and justice sphere.
“Across a variety of critical crops and a wide range of geographies, from small-hold farmers to larger-scale food producers—we invest in SupPlant because SupPlant helps farmers produce more, better food, sustainably.
Also read: Huawei, Telcos to Help Make Smart Farming a Reality in Africa
