Emmertech is a venture capital fund focused on agtech and agribusiness innovation.

Emmertech

TELUS Ventures is the strategic investment arm of TELUS Corporation and one of Canada’s most active and longest-standing corporate venture capital (CVC) funds. Since 2001, TELUS Ventures has invested in and advised more than 85 companies that address some of the biggest opportunities and challenges in digital health, IoT, AgTech, digital security and connected consumer sectors.  TELUS Ventures is on a mission to seamlessly connect millions of people, companies and communities by strategically investing in the most advanced and innovative solutions that deliver value to our business and customers, fuel economic growth and deliver a positive social impact.  We are stage agnostic in our approach, and write cheques anywhere from $500,000 to $15M; We focus on horizon 2 / horizon 3 investment opportunities in early stage companies that are synergistic to TELUS and allow us to expand into new markets beyond the traditional telecommunications sector.  We work with best-in-class partners to source, nurture and scale innovation. Our established partner network includes leading incubator, accelerator and global co-investment partners as well as a global consortium of telecom companies with CVC arms.  TELUS Ventures is actively involved in portfolio companies, working directly with management. Our team members regularly act as board members and board observers, lending leadership and experience to guide their growth and success. We provide access to TELUS’ technologies and broadband networks and opportunities to promote our portfolio companies’ solutions across our ecosystem.

TELUS Ventures

Whitecap Venture Partners is a Canadian-based Venture Capital fund investing in early stage technology companies. Whitecap is headquartered in Toronto and invests across Canada and the Northeastern US.  Since Whitecap’s inception the early 1990s, Whitecap recognises the power of real collaboration between entrepreneurs and investors. This rapport enables them to provide significant value to companies along with strong returns across investment cycles. Whitecap specialises in Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) and Medical Technologies. Whitecap is continually searching for upcoming ventures to support as the next generation of exceptional enterprises.

Whitecap Venture Partners

PIC is the only investment management company in South Africa that focuses exclusively on the public sector.  Wholly owned by the South African Government, PIC is in the hands of the public yet operates in a manner comparable with any private sector asset manager.  PIC is one of the largest and most successful investment managers in Africa.

Public Investment Corporation

AgCapital Canada provides capital to help owner-operators take their companies to the next, higher level.

AgCapital Canada

Ukko Agro

Ukko Agro develops an agriculture ecosystem that helps optimize pesticide usage to minimize crop losses. It offers technology tools that facilitate on-farm decision making with minimal time investment from the growers.   The company is driven to optimize pesticide use for better crop yield, by integrating technologies to track, analyze, and quantify sustainability gained. Its product features realtime on-farm monitoring, predicts disease or pest attacks, prescribe pesticide spray, integrates with external on-farm equipment and technologies, reduces crop losses, and optimizes crop inputs. Ukko Agro was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario.

<div>Ukko Agro is a Canadian startup that offers agriculture businesses a plug-and-play platform that provides predictive analytics on crop diseases, growth stages, and irrigation monitoring. The platform uses machine learning, data science, and the Internet of Things (IoT), and can be used across four crop types—canola, soybeans, wheat, and potatoes. As of November 2021, the company serves six countries across North America, Europe, and South America, selling the products through multiple channels such as retailers and crop-input companies as well as directly selling to farmers.</div>

Sustainably solving the food shortages of the future

Smart Farming

Ukko Agro helps ag companies make informed crop management decisions.

<div>
 
 Ukko Agro is a Canadian startup that offers agriculture businesses a plug-and-play platform that provides predictive analytics on crop diseases, growth stages, and irrigation monitoring. The platform uses machine learning, data science, and the Internet of Things (IoT), and can be used across four crop types—canola, soybeans, wheat, and potatoes. As of November 2021, the company serves six countries across North America, Europe, and South America, selling the products through multiple channels such as retailers and crop-input companies as well as directly selling to farmers.
 
 
 The company claims that the data gathered from in-field sensors help in providing insights on pest attacks and the appropriate usage of pesticides up to 72 hours in advance. In 2021, Ukko Agro also reported plans to develop its model to include more crop types (corn and barley) and provide insights on nutrient deficiency, crop yield, and insect risk types. 
 
 
 The company aims to become the choice platform for crop management and analytics among players across the agriculture value chain from seed companies to growers. To do so, the company partnered with CENGN, Canada’s innovation and industry hub providing support in validating new technologies, to validate its technology. The project with CENGN revealed that farmers are able to reduce pesticide usage by 25%, which amounts to CAD 40 per acre (USD 31) saved in costs. Ukko Agro has also partnered with EMNify, a Berlin-based cloud communications and cellular network provider, to connect and streamline its sensors via its cloud platform. Via the product development partnership, Ukko can temporarily pause SIM usage during the off-season, saving up to 20% in connectivity costs. 
 
 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/sectors/sustainability/updates/7444">
 In December 2021
 </a>
 , the company raised CAD 5.1 million (USD 3.9 million) in a seed funding round led by Emmertech. The company plans to use the funds to expand its existing customer base, further develop its data science to accommodate more crop types (such as corn and barley) and geographies, and integrate other agriculture platforms into its software. 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/8619?industryIds=50">
 In February 2022
 </a>
 , Ukko Agro also received CAD 875,000 (~ USD 687,500) from the Government of Canada’s ‘AgriInnovate Program’ to support the development of the new version of “ForeSight”.
 
</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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;In July 2020, amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, the company raised USD 30 million in Series C funding. Key Investors included Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Micron Ventures, and Vertex Ventures Israel. The company expects to use the funds to create more relevant scouting products for growers through its platform and to also look towards expanding into Asia.&nbsp;Previously in January 2023, Taranis introduced <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/taranis-introduces-acreforward-setting-a-new-standard-for-crop-intelligence-301734306.html">AcreForward</a> which provides unprecedented leaf-level insights into growers' crops at higher frequency throughout the season and captures opportunities in every acre to help ag retailers drive more value from every acre. In <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/taranis-launches-ag-assistant-to-transform-farm-decision-making-302198624.html">July 2024</a>, The company has introduced Ag assistant, powered by a generative AI model that integrates data sources from various modalities – including images, text and audio – and with a profound understanding of agronomy.

Taranis

Based in Canada, TELUS Agriculture offers integrated agriculture software solutions to increase profits of farmers and ranchers, agri-businesses, and agri-food, consumer goods and retail companies. Some of the farm management software solutions provided by the company are: Farm at Hand (crop management platform), TKXS (data management), Agrian (precision and informed decision making)&nbsp; and Muddy Boots (food traceability and supply chain management). As of July 2021, TELUS provides its solutions across Canada, the USA, Mexico, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Slovakia, Armenia, Germany, China, and Australia.In July 2021, TELUS along with Rabobank, a Dutch food and agriculture bank, acquired Conservis to deliver a more robust Conservis platform to cater a diverse range of crops and livestock leveraging the former’s know-how and relationships across the food industry value chain and the latter’s portfolio of innovative digital farming technologies and solutions.&nbsp;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.&nbsp; Since 2018, Rabo AgriFinance, a Rabobank subsidiary, has also been a development partner for Conservis to enhance the platform’s financial reporting capabilities.&nbsp;In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/27853">March 2024</a>, The company&nbsp; has completed the acquisition of Proagrica, a provider of agronomic and business data solutions.Key customers and partnershipsIn <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/decisive-farming-telus-agriculture-grainfox-140000751.html">October 2023</a>, The company has partnered with GrainFox announced a new partnership to bring more digital grain trade and sell options to Canadian farmers, providing technology-based solutions to support the ongoing transformation of Canada’s agriculture industry.

TELUS  Agriculture

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’s product has been used in 39 different countries.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.The company’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’s platform have reportedly shown to reduce irrigation by upto 50% and pesticide usage by 15%. 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’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.Key customers and partnershipsAs of July 2022, the company serves over 400 customers across 40 countries, and has partnered with agribusiness players like <a href="https://www.bayer.com/en/">Bayer </a>, <a href="http://basf.com/">BASF </a>, and <a href="https://www.nutrien.com/">Nutrien </a>, as well as large consumer food companies such as <a href="https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&amp;ai=DChcSEwjZmt7Vz8HsAhVB5bMKHZDRA-QYABAAGgJxbg&amp;ohost=www.google.com&amp;cid=CAESQOD2vDo-TeLvYzetoyv9iGSw4AnEyiwfscK9vNdjRJ0JPSZXAOBHMYcmrQDPGFTkEl8yzB3t5tB0WHRWzqyKtJE&amp;sig=AOD64_30Xpx6__U8VgKUxkOFpPHuSo99bw&amp;q&amp;adurl&amp;ved=2ahUKEwj--M3Vz8HsAhVCLKwKHa4MAgUQ0Qx6BAgUEAE">Mars </a>, <a href="https://www.lambweston.com/">Lamb Weston </a>, and <a href="https://www.tweglobal.com/">Treasury Wine Estates </a>, as well as fellow startups like <a href="https://www.planet.com/">Planet </a>, <a href="https://www.terramera.com/">Terramera </a>, and <a href="https://www.pivotbio.com/">Pivot Bio </a>primarily to expand the reach of its platform.In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/32961">August 2024</a>, Arable collaborated with Google to leverage agritech to promote water conservation and crop productivity among Nebraska farms.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.Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the company’s sales grew by 4x during 2020 and 2022, while reporting a 300% sales growth in Q3 2020 alone.

Arable

The company’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. The company has been focusing on the US and Australia.&nbsp;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’s solutions (pest and disease detection weeks ahead of human detection) align with their products and services.&nbsp;In <a href="https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2023/03/203925-ai-enhanced-data-analytics-product-suite-ceres-imaging-now-available-to-agriculture-insurers-lenders/">March 2023</a>, The company has unveiled Risk Solutions product suite, designed to power the next generation of risk models for insurers and lenders.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 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16918">March 2023</a>, The company also expanded its services to Portugal and Spain.

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

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

Operators of marketplaces connecting farmers, suppliers, buyers, experts and advisors to streamline the farming process.

Start-ups offering software and related hardware solutions for crop operation, crop modelling, weather forecasting, soil analysis, and overall irrigation management using sensors, big data, AI and machine learning.

Startups offering software and related hardware solutions that facilitate real time data tracking and sharing on animal weight, future weight forecasts, and animal health and behavioural analysis using RFID tags, sensors, big data, AI and machine learning.

Start-ups offering drone or satellite imagery to measure and monitor fields, spray pesticides, accurately present biological parameters, control the quality of sowing, etc.

Crop and livestock monitoring startups use AI for their analytics platform

Uses robots for harvesting, weeding, and related agricultural purposes

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

Provides solutions that maximizes efficiency throughout the agriculture value chain

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

Ukko Agro

About EDGE

Contact Us

Resources

Area of Focus

Technology Research Made Effortless