- Israel-based precision agritech company Greeneye Technology has raised $20 million to expand its U.S. operations, bringing its total funding to date to $45 million.
- Israeli investment firm Deep Insight led the round, with participation from existing investors Syngenta Group Ventures, JVP, Orbia Ventures, and Eyal Waldman, founder of Mellanox (now part of Nvidia).
- New investors also joined, including Iron Nation and Farmers Business Network founder and former CEO Amol Deshpande.
- Greeneye will use the funding to expand its U.S. operations and introduce new features to its system.
Farmers ‘lack tools’ to manage weeds
Farmers are increasingly facing challenges when it comes to applying chemical herbicides through traditional broadcasting, including herbicide-resistant weeds, rising production costs, and environmental concerns.
Greeneye’s technology can be retrofitted to work with most existing machinery and can only detect and spray areas where weeds are growing, rather than hitting crops or bare ground like broadcast methods. can.
“A big concern for farmers today is the lack of tools to manage weeds on their farms due to resistance,” explains Nadav Bottcher, CEO of GreenEye. “This opens up a lot of opportunities, especially in the configurations we offer.”
Today, he says, effectiveness is a big part of the story, in addition to saving money and limiting damage to the environment.
“Farmers are excited about this technology, not only because of the cost savings (which is definitely very attractive) but also because it opens up options for weed control,” he says. Masu. agfunder news.
Green Eye’s “turning point”
Greeneye announced its technology in early 2022 and joined FBN’s Innovators Research League, North America’s leading field testing program, in the same year.
Boettcher said the funding is all about expanding the business, particularly across the U.S. market. “We’re now heading into the 2024 season, and from a Greeneye perspective, this is kind of a turning point as we roll out dozens of systems in the field.”
The company aims to install the machines on 200 million acres of U.S. farmland this year. GreenEye has focused primarily on corn and soybeans in recent years. In 2024, cotton will be added to the list of crops.
Boettcher said the company already has a “very deep pipeline of farmers waiting for these machines” and will be sold out in 2024. He added that many of the machines for the 2025 season have already been allocated.
“We focus on an aftermarket approach.”
Part of Greeneye’s mainstream appeal, Boettcher said, is its “aftermarket approach” to precision engineering. In other words, “We take existing machines, regardless of color, brand, or model, and modify them with his Greeneye technology to enable precision application of chemicals.” We take an aftermarket approach. The emphasis is on ”
“We take a machine and put eyes and a brain in it. Right now, the first commercially viable application is to precisely spray chemicals just on weeds, but in reality, There’s so much more you can do with it, and we’ve got a lot more exciting features coming.”
Starting with the 2024 season, GreenEye’s technology will not only spray weeds, but also be able to apply other inputs to crops, such as fungicides and micronutrients.
Now, Bocher says, these inputs are typically broadcast across the field. “Often there is no reason for it; [with Greeneye technology] You can save even more if you apply it only to your crops. ”
The addition of these inputs “uses the technology we build to move from optimizing herbicide application to being able to apply chemicals across the board, where you need them, and in the amounts you need them.” He added that this is another step toward achieving this goal.
Investing in companies that go back to basics
Bottcher agrees that there have been “very noticeable changes in the market from 2021 to today” and that financing is difficult in the current environment.
That said, he argues that GreenEye’s technology has certain advantages when it comes to attracting investors.
“Investors are now trying to focus on tangible value, where they can see the economics, where they can understand the business, where they can see the business group,” he says. “This is one of the key strengths that we can offer our customers, with a very clear return on investment that we offer to our customers and allows them to have a clear competitive differentiation as an aftermarket solution.
“People think of the Greeneye system as a bunch of algorithms, and this is just one of them. Almost every component of our system (camera, GPU, slide, nozzle, boom itself) was all designed and designed by Greeneye. This creates a lot of intellectual property and creates a lot of advantages in unit economics and profitability. Investors understand that and get back to basics when the market is down. I think I was able to do that.”
GreenEye marks Deep Insight’s first foray into agriculture, with investments in semiconductors, alternative materials, quantum technology and biotechnology.
“They’ve spent a lot of time with us to understand the technology and understand the complexity of the technology and that it’s not something you can just build out of the box,” Bocher says. . “That’s what makes it a really good fit with their existing deep tech funds.”
“Building a safe and resilient food system that can feed a growing global population is paramount, and that starts with equipping farmers with the tools they need to transition to new practices.” said Barak Ben Elezer, Managing Partner at Deep Insight. .
“GreenEye not only understands this, but has done what others have not done by bringing to market a viable precision spraying solution that farmers can easily and affordably implement into their existing operations. From a strategic perspective, Greeneye clearly understands the milestones it needs to reach to drive mass adoption of its technology, and what those milestones are. I have achieved this many times.”
