July 26, 2017

Qualcomm Ventures, the investment arm of Qualcomm Incorporated, has led a $15 million Series B for Tel Aviv-based digital farming startup Prospera. Other investors contributing to the round include Cisco Investments, ICV, and existing investor Bessemer Venture Partners. This Series B brings Prospera’s total fundraising to date to $22 million.

Founded in 2014 by computer scientists who saw a need for digital applications in agriculture, Prospera employs computer vision, data analytics, and artificial intelligence to create digital tools that, when integrated into agricultural production systems from agronomy to operations, result in higher yields, healthier crops, and better returns.

For farmers, Prospera is able to boil down the massive volume of data points involved in agricultural production, from weather conditions, to soil nutrition profiles, to epidemiological information, and labor management, allowing the farm manager to base their production decisions on facts rather than making approximations.

“We were impressed with Prospera’s innovative approach to the digitalization of farming by using computer vision, machine learning, and wireless technologies,” said Boaz Peer, director at Qualcomm Ventures. “We are excited to be an investor and look forward to supporting them as they lead the way towards bringing greater innovation to the agriculture industry.”

Digital Dollars

Agriculture represents 10 percent of global GDP, but is the least digitized industry in the world, according to the MGI Industry Digitization Index launched by the McKinsey Global Institute. Despite this, it is agtech solutions that will be called upon to see the world fed by 2050.

“Digitizing farm production will be essential to meeting the challenges of feeding a rapidly growing population, with ever increasing demands for quality and reliability,” said Adam Fisher of Bessemer Venture Partners.

When polled at Global AgInvesting New York 2017 in April, conference attendees were asked, “In the next five to 10 years, how will agtech and data influence your decision making?”

Sixty-eight percent of attendees responded: “It is the future and those who are not on board are behind.” Clearly reflecting that a vast majority of investors rank data driven agtech innovation as at least “important,” with nearly 70 percent seeing the space as “the future.” This sentiment is reflected in the dollar amounts being deployed to the space and the number of deals being made.

Investment dollars into food and agtech startups reached a record $4.6 billion in 2015 – double that of the previous year, according to AgFunder. In 2016, although investment dollars fell back to $3.2 billion, the number of deals increased by 10 percent, reaching a record 580.

“This is an exciting time to create data analytics solutions, with the agriculture industry on the precipice of a giant step forward,” said Daniel Koppel, Prospera co-founder and CEO. “While the agriculture industry has been somewhat slow to adopt information technologies, it is now closing the gap with state-of- the-art data processing tools, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. We’re excited to lead this paradigm shift.”

This optimism was also expressed at GAI AgTech Week 2017 by Ara Nefian, co-founder and CTO of Intelinair, who said, “It’s only now that computer power has become cheap. New sensors that give us amazing resolution – analytics become possible with new technology –  combining sensor computing power and algorithms – the time is now or the right time is about to come.”

Looking toward an agricultural future in need of what technology offers, Prospera plans to use the capital secured through this Series B to fund its global expansion and to broaden its digital services to a wider range of crops being grown both in-field and indoor.

-Lynda Kiernan

Lynda Kiernan is Editor with GAI Media and daily contributor to GAI News. If you would like to submit a contribution for consideration, please contact Ms. Kiernan at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.