Denis Opudo
Aerobotics, an aerial data analytics firm that is based in Cape Town got an undisclosed amount of investment from Nedbank. The local investment and cooperate bank was also the lead investor in a Series A funding round. Moreover, several other investors participated in that round of funding including investors from Silicon Valley. Joe Caruso from Silicon Valley and AgFunder, an online investment marketplace were among the investors that participated in the round.
In 2017, 4Di Capital, a capital venture from Cape Town and Savannah Fund together gave seed funding worth R8 million to the startup. The two also participated in the Series A round of funding. Moneyweb, an online business publication reported on 13th July 2018 that Nedbank invested using its R100 million VC fund. This was part of Nedbank’s strategic focus on agri-finance. But Benji Melzer, the co-founder of the aerobatic refused to disclose the equity stake or the amount of investment.
According to him, Aerobotics planned to use amount to fund more of its product commercialization and development. The startup has also created Aeroview, a platform that analyses data to assist farmers to optimize the performance of crops. It also helps them to reduce the cost of input. It does that by using artificial intelligence (AI), satellites and drones. Furthermore, its solutions can be used in the sector of crop insurance. Aerobotics developed a client group of farmers and agricultural consultants outside South Africa operating in the UK and Australia. Founded in 2014 by Benji Meltzer and James Paterson, Aerobotics was among the 5th cohort of Launchpad Accelerator. The accelerator is an initiative of Google and its based in San Francisco. According to Meltzer, Aerobotics graduated from the fifth cohort in June 2018. Additionally, Aerobotics is an alumnus of Startupbootcamp InsurTech
