Israeli Agriculture Technology Phytech Harvests Their Series A

Published on by in Business

Israeli Agriculture Technology Phytech Harvests Their Series A

This data driven agritech company is using analytics to help farmers make the most out of their crops

The Israeli agriculture technology company Phytech has announced that they have closed their Series A funding, bringing them a step closer to expanding their global market reach. Leading the round were current partners and investors Syngenta Ventures, which is the capital arm of one of the largest global agribusiness players, and Mitsui & Co Europe.

Founded in 1998, Phytech’s beginnings more closely resembled that of a classical company, providing data to farmers based on their monitoring of crops and going public with an IPO. The shift came in 2011 when Sarig Duek bought in to the company, bringing with him a team of investors that helped him privatize and enact a new approach to how they analyzed and delivered data to their customers.

Over the course of two rounds spanning between 2012 and 2014, Phytech brought in $3 million in venture seed funds, helping them sprout up and reach out to new markets. The company has not released the amount that was raised in this most recent round, but has acknowledged that it is greater than that of their seed rounds combined.

Phytech’s product can be defined as a decision support tool that optimizes irrigation practice, such as how much and when to water. Their app checks the plant’s stress levels with Phytech’s device, which has sensors mounted on the plant, helping the farmer know how much water the plant needs to produce an optimal yield. It combines the data from the plants along with satellite imaging, climate data, soil moisture, and the plants and elements surrounding the plants, basically creating an Internet of Plants.

All this data is sent to their cloud where it is aggregated and analyzed, pushing out actionable alerts and recommendations to help the grower maximize their potential yield. This also helps save water, a factor that can incur significant cost savings.

Their business model is based on a subscription service, with growers paying for their product per season. This complete package includes everything from the sensors on the plants to the analytical cloud system.

Phytech works with growers of high value crops like almonds, coffee, avocados, cotton, and other plants that fetch a significant price. While they already control a large chunk of the market for their services in their native Israel, the innovative and analytical approach has brought them to work in many locations around the world like Australia, California, and Brazil.

They have formed a series of strategic partnerships with big multinationals like Syngenta that are also heavily involved in agricultural product developments. The Switzerland-based Syngenta operates as a biotechnology firm, producing everything from pesticides to modified seeds that are capable of growing stronger and more resistant crops.

Source: Geektime

Read More Related Content On This Topic - Click Here

Media

Taxonomy