Octopusbot founders Rodrigo Cortes and Carolina Ferreira. Photo: Octopusbot
AI CROP-forecasting company Octopusbot has received its first round of external funding which will be used to assist with fast-tracking of international expansion.
Totalling more than $1 million, the funds have come from Australian venture capitalists Folklore Ventures and No Brand.
Based in Sydney and founded by technical engineers Carolina Ferreira and Rodrigo Cortes, Octopusbot forecasts yields and production across the world’s major agricultural regions for a wide range of crops.
It markets its forecasts as being up to seven months ahead of trade and official estimates, and an average accuracy of 95 percent.
The Octopusbot platform applies tens of thousands of interconnected AI models, satellite imagery, weather data, historical yields and commodity-market information to forecast crop production, supply risks and price direction.
The company has close to 100 business customers, including Elders.
Ms Ferreira said the partnership with Elders was an important step in proving the value of AI-driven crop intelligence to the Australian agricultural sector.
Elders chief agronomist Alex Greetham said Octopusbot leads the market in crop assessment and the use of AI to analyse multiple data sources.
“Elders is working with Octopusbot on several new initiatives to help our clients better understand crop conditions and make more informed marketing and agronomy decisions,” Mr Greetham said.
Octopusbot’s farm-level product now covers more than one million hectares in Australia, while its market intelligence product is expanding across North America, South America, Europe and the Black Sea region.
GRDC invests in Moa
The GrainInnovate fund, investing on behalf of the Grains Research Development Corporation and managed by Artesian, has put money into a $29.6-million Series C financing round for agricultural biotechnology company Moa Technology.
Based in the UK, Moa’s focus is on discovery of novel mode of action herbicides, and is co-led by Oxford Science Enterprises with new partner Supernova Invest.
Other new investors in this round are Agri Investment Fund, Infinity Investment Partners, and Magdalen College Oxford, and ongoing support has come from OSE, Lansdowne Partners, Parkwalk, and Oxford University Innovation.
Moa Technology CEO Dr Virginia Corless and chair Hartmut van Lengerich. Photo: Moa Technology
Over the past two years, Moa has formed R&D collaborations with Nufarm, Gowan, Certis Belchim, and Corteva Agriscience to develop different novel solutions to help farmers protect their harvests from crop-killing weeds.
Moa expects to continue to sign further commercial research partnerships, and its proprietary technology platforms have already discovered over 80 novel mode of action areas to control weeds and break resistance.
Last year, Moa discovered a new category of products – Moa Amplifiers – which are not herbicidal on their own but have the potential to reduce the amount or concentration of herbicides required, supporting productivity and environmental stewardship.
This Series C funding will enable Moa to bring its three most advanced programs significantly closer to commercialisation, to build its pipeline of early-stage novel mode of action herbicides and to further develop the Moa Amplifiers program.
Source: Folklore Ventures, Moa Technology
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