The team behind Catapult Ventures are among the most experienced venture capital investors in the UK. Their experience spans a range of sectors from healthcare and pharmaceuticals to luxury consumer brands, manufacturing and software, as well as all stages: from start-ups and pre-revenue IP developers to company floatation and billions of pounds in revenue.  Their administration team is equally experienced with each member having more than 10 years experience in a venture capital environment.

Catapult Ventures

Impact Venture Capital is a first-time venture fund managed by seasoned general partners.  The firm is headquartered in Northern California but has a global investment mandate.  Impact Venture Capital works to invest alongside corporate venture groups in early stage information technology startups, with a focus on Telecom, Media, Civic Tech, Cyber Security, FinTech, and Data Analytics.   Impact Venture Capital also manages the Entrepreneur’s Showcase Innovation Programs.  These programs are designed to improve the local entrepreneurial ecosystem by igniting, accelerating, and capitalizing participating startups. These founders are building companies to address global challenges in the areas of clean energy, food and water, healthcare, and government.  Dixon Doll (founder of DCM Partners and former chair of the NVCA), Eric Ball (former Treasurer of Oracle Corporation), and Jack Crawford (serial entrepreneur and founding partner of Velocity Venture Capital) serve as the firm’s General Partners.  For more information, please visit: impactvc.com

Impact Venture Capital

Yamaha Motor Ventures & Laboratory Silicon Valley is a venture capital firm that invests in the robotics, food, and AgTech industry. The firm invests in early-stage companies that have product and customer validation. Yamaha Motor Ventures & Laboratory Silicon Valley (YMVSV) was founded in 2015 by Hiro Saijou and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, United States.

Yamaha Motor Ventures

Kubota Vietnam Ltd was established in 2008 by Kubota Japan Corporation. We are distributing Agriculture mechinary products through 40 distributors in whole Vietnam.

Kubota Vietnam Ltd

Investing at the forefront of Automation, Robotics, AI, and IoT

Advanced Farm Technologies

Advanced Farm Technologies is a robotics company for the next frontier of farming. It offers strawberry harvesting services in the Oxnard, Santa Maria. and Watsonville areas. Its robots gently handle berries to avoid bruising and fruit damage.  Advanced Farm Technologies was founded in Davis, California in 2017.

<div>Advanced Farm Technologies is a California-based smart farming startup that offers autonomous robotic technology to farmers using a robotics-as-a-service model. The company’s first robot “TX Robotic Strawberry Harvester” was commercialized in 2019 targeting strawberry farmers. The company reports that it was the first to commercialize robotic strawberry harvesting with some of the leading strawberry growers such as GoodFarms, The Oppenheimer Group (Oppy), and Naturipe. The robots are built with its proprietary technology platform called the “T-6 Platform,” specifically designed for harvesting crops in soil-planted beds.</div>

Sustainably solving the food shortages of the future

Smart Farming

<div>
 
 Advanced Farm Technologies is a California-based smart farming startup that offers autonomous robotic technology to farmers using a robotics-as-a-service model. The company’s first robot “TX Robotic Strawberry Harvester” was commercialized in 2019 targeting strawberry farmers. The company reports that it was the first to commercialize robotic strawberry harvesting with some of the leading strawberry growers such as GoodFarms, The Oppenheimer Group (Oppy), and Naturipe. The robots are built with its proprietary technology platform called the “T-6 Platform,” specifically designed for harvesting crops in soil-planted beds. 
 
 
 The robots are designed to work alongside manual harvesters and use AI, machine learning, and gripper technology to automatically sense and pick ripe fruit from in-soil strawberry beds. According to the company, its robots can be used outdoors and can withstand any in-soil conditions to work autonomously for up to 24 hours a day. 
 
 
 In September 2021, Advanced Farms raised USD 25 million in a Series B funding round led by Catapult Ventures. The funds are expected to be directed toward developing its fruit picking robotic technology, scaling its team, and expanding to new areas such as apple harvesting. The company has also received funds from global farm equipment manufacturers such as Kubota and Yamaha.
 
</div>

<div>
 
 Israeli startup Taranis, focuses on providing a complete digital agronomy solution to farmers using aerial imagery technology across the US, Argentina, Brazil, Russia, Ukraine, and Australia. The company now monitors more than 20 million acres globally, 50% of which is located within the US. The company is also looking towards expanding into Asia. The startup captures aerial images using UAVs, which can be analyzed and compared using its own platform, and allows farmers to make precise decisions about planting. The company also operates an area called the “AgroBrain”, which allows precise identification of crop issues. 
 
 
 The company claims to account for 70% of the global crop market and equips farmers with the tools to address issues in real time. Similar to peers like Ceres Imaging, Taranis has partnered with incumbent players like John Deere, Syngenta, BASF, and Climate Field View to expand its product reach. As such, Taranis is regarded as a promising startup in global precision agriculture. Taranis further strengthened its aerial imagery offering by extending its partnership with DroneNerds (the largest distributor of enterprise drone solutions) and DJI (the Chinese multinational commercial UAV manufacturer) 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/10126">
 in April 2022
 </a>
 .
 
 
 In 2018, the company expanded its footprint in the US when it acquired Mavrx, a US startup providing aerial imagery solutions to local farmers. Mavrx ran into financial difficulties and consolidation of the two companies yielded attractive opportunities. The consolidation allowed Taranis to integrate Mavrx’s product (full field imagery product with highest resolution on the market) into its platform, thereby fulfilling Taranis’ aim of providing a complete solution. The acquisition strengthened Taranis' offering rather than differentiating it. Taranis believes that further consolidation is likely with imagery and AI solutions. 
 
 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/12885">
 In September 2022,
 </a>
 Taranis raised USD 40 million in Series D funding led by Inven Capital, to be used to accelerate progress for the company’s 3-year plan which it outlined in 2020. The plan looks at relocating its headquarters to Indiana, US from Israel, and expanding its operations.
 
</div>

Taranis

<div>
 
 Canada-based TELUS Agriculture offers integrated agriculture software solutions to boost profits for farmers, ranchers, agri-businesses, agri-food, consumer goods, and retail firms. Farm management software solutions provided by the company include the Farm at Hand crop management platform, TKXS for data management, the Agrian precision and informed decision-making tool, and Muddy Boots—a food traceability and supply chain management product. As of July 2021, TELUS operates across Canada, the USA, Mexico, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Slovakia, Armenia, Germany, China, and Australia.
 
 
 In July 2021, TELUS and Rabobank, a Dutch food and agriculture bank, acquired the farm planning software solution company Conservis to deliver a more robust platform covering a broader range of crops and livestock to a larger number of clients.
 
 
 Founded in 2009, Conservis via its web and mobile platform, provides farmers with planning tools, real-time data capture, and analytics to support better decision making and efficient reporting. Having launched as a permanent crop management platform for tree nuts, the platform has expanded its capabilities to fit crop types such as citrus and grapes. Since 2018, Rabo AgriFinance, a Rabobank subsidiary, has also been a development partner for Conservis to enhance the platform’s financial reporting capabilities. 
 
</div>

TELUS  Agriculture

<div>
 
 Arable was established with the aim of providing measurements, insight, and predictions that enable growers to address risks with crop management. The key market of focus has been the US, though the company&rsquo;s product has been used in 39 different countries.&nbsp;
 
 
 The company provides real-time data updates on irrigation and weather, such as reports on plants and crop management, to allow users to make informed decisions, while also being able to precisely measure different farming-related data such as temperature and humidity. Thus, the company falls under the categories of precision and smart farming.&nbsp;
 
 
 The company&rsquo;s product, Arable Mark, is an irrigation management tool whichsynthesizes climate, plant, and soil data to produce visualizations. Through a web dashboard and smartphone app, Arable Mark exposes precipitation, crop water deficit, soil moisture, chilling hours, and other metrics gathered from sensors. Customers using Arable&rsquo;s platform have reportedly shown to reduce irrigation by upto 50% and pesticide usage by 15%.&nbsp;In May 2023, the company commercially introduced 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/18120">
 Arable Mark 3
 </a>
 which includes a 5 MP camera, an optional wind anemometer, and advanced plant and environmental sensing capabilities.
 
 
 The company&rsquo;s customer base is quite broad in the agriculture value chain, and includes farmers, advisors, insurers, processors, lenders, and governments that find Arable useful to gauge facts on the ground in real time, and in turn reduce risk and increase certainty with decision making.&nbsp;
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 As of July 2022, &nbsp;the company serves over 400 customers across 40 countries, and&nbsp; has partnered with agribusiness players like&nbsp;
 <a href="https://www.bayer.com/en/">
 Bayer
 </a>
 ,&nbsp;
 <a href="http://basf.com/">
 BASF
 </a>
 , and&nbsp;
 <a href="https://www.nutrien.com/">
 Nutrien
 </a>
 , as well as large consumer food companies such as&nbsp;
 <a href="https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwjZmt7Vz8HsAhVB5bMKHZDRA-QYABAAGgJxbg&ohost=www.google.com&cid=CAESQOD2vDo-TeLvYzetoyv9iGSw4AnEyiwfscK9vNdjRJ0JPSZXAOBHMYcmrQDPGFTkEl8yzB3t5tB0WHRWzqyKtJE&sig=AOD64_30Xpx6__U8VgKUxkOFpPHuSo99bw&q&adurl&ved=2ahUKEwj--M3Vz8HsAhVCLKwKHa4MAgUQ0Qx6BAgUEAE">
 Mars
 </a>
 ,&nbsp;
 <a href="https://www.lambweston.com/">
 Lamb Weston
 </a>
 , and&nbsp;
 <a href="https://www.tweglobal.com/">
 Treasury Wine Estates
 </a>
 ,&nbsp;as well as fellow startups like&nbsp;
 <a href="https://www.planet.com/">
 Planet
 </a>
 ,&nbsp;
 <a href="https://www.terramera.com/">
 Terramera
 </a>
 , and&nbsp;
 <a href="https://www.pivotbio.com/">
 Pivot Bio
 </a>
 primarily to expand the reach of its platform.&nbsp;
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/11852">
 In July 2022
 </a>
 , Arable raised USD 40 million in Series C funding led by Galvanize Climate Solutions to support product development, delivery of new services, and international expansion.&nbsp;
 
 
 Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the company&rsquo;s sales grew by 4x during 2020 and 2022, while&nbsp; reporting a&nbsp; 300% sales growth in Q3 2020 alone.&nbsp; 
 
 
 
</div>

Arable

<div>
 
 The company&rsquo;s aerial spectral imagery helps growers optimize water and fertilizer application, focusing on the midstream of the agriculture value chain. The company uses low-flying planes to capture and process these aerial spectral images. The images provide accurate and real-time information on the water and nutrient status of every plant in the field. 
 &nbsp;The company initially focused on the US and Australia, and later 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16918">
 expanded
 </a>
 its services to Portugal and Spain. 
 
 
 Its technology can be applied to vineyards, orchards, and row crops like corn, soybeans, and wheat. The company is more of a Data as a Service organisation where the grower will pay Ceres Imaging by the acre and receive imagery and necessary support to integrate the information with broader crop management practices. The company has partnered with established companies like John Deere and Climate FieldView, which find that Ceres Imaging&rsquo;s solutions (pest and disease detection weeks ahead of human detection) align with their products and services.&nbsp;In 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/15394">
 December 2022
 </a>
 , Ceres Imaging partnered with Lindsay Corporation, a provider of irrigation, infrastructure, and industrial technology solutions, to receive high-resolution images from Ceres Imaging's technology for Lindsay&rsquo;s FieldNET platform.
 
 
 In 2019, Ceres Imaging significantly expanded its operations with irrigated row crops throughout the central and western US.&nbsp;During the period, Ceres also nearly doubled its share of the&nbsp;California&nbsp;specialty crop market, going from managing 10% to 18% of all specialty crop acres in the state.&nbsp;
 
 
 In September 2021, the company raised USD 23 million in a Series C funding round led by XTX Ventures and REMUS Capital. The funds were to be directed toward advancing the company&rsquo;s product offering, developing the company&rsquo;s AI technology that will allow improved irrigation practices for growers, and expanding the company&rsquo;s geographical presence.
 
</div>

Ceres Imaging

<div>
 
 SWIIM (Sustainable Water and Innovative Irrigation Management) System, with the support of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and various US grant universities, operates multi-patented technology developed to manage agricultural water budgets, allowing farmers to efficiently allocate water. The company focuses on the midstream of the agricultural value chain, supporting farmers through their harvesting process. The company’s technology is being widely deployed across western US states.
 
 
 The company provides a device that integrates with existing water measurement tools such as water gauges and analyzes real-time water usage via telemetry, offering farmers information on exactly how much water is used for crops and how much goes back into the ground.
 
 
 The company’s system can be used for any crop and irrigation system, lending its product flexibility and scope for potential expansion beyond the US. 
 
 
 In 2018, SWIIM acquired farm management software OnFarm Systems, which operates a customizable dashboard presenting data collected from a range of different internet of things (IoT) sources (weather, pest control, crop models) on any online device. The acquisition provided SWIIM customers with a differentiated product. Moreover, OnFarm’s 500 clients across the United States, Europe, and Asia at the time were accessible to SWIIM.  
 
 
 In 2020, SWIIM issued its own certification to farmers for the sustainable use of water, conveying to consumers that produce was grown with sustainable water management practices. In addition, SWIIM also introduced its “Certified Water Balance Report”, providing growers with an audited account of their water use. The company’s niche focus on water management, alongside its efforts at differentiation via acquisitions, arms it with potential to broaden its reach.
 
 
 
</div>

SWIIM Systems

Provides solutions that maximizes efficiency throughout the agriculture value chain

Uses data analytics and sensors and related technologies to provide crop and livestock monitoring insights

Uses robots for harvesting, weeding, and related agricultural purposes

Crop and livestock monitoring startups use AI for their analytics platform

IoT-enabled sensors are used in machinery and equipment to help with data collection

Start-ups providing smart machinery such as agricultural robots and autonomous tractors, as well as other smart hardware devices for crop and livestock management.

Advanced Farm Technologies

Smart Farming

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Advanced Farm Technologies raises USD 25 million in Series B funding

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