Israeli agricultural drone manufacturer Tevel Aerobotics Technologies Ltd. is currently completing a $20 million financing round at a $45 million valuation. This is the company’s third funding round, having raised $11.5 million in two previous rounds of investment.
The company is led by founder and CEO Yaniv Maor and chairman Eyal Desheh, the former chairman of Isracard and CFO of Teva Pharmaceuticals and Check Point.
The new capital is intended to fund production and fill the existing order book, made up mostly of North American and European clients, with orders also coming in from China, Japan, South Korea, and Brazil.
Tevel develops autonomous drones equipped with a one-meter long mechanical claw, which can pick fruit, or be used for thinning and pruning tasks in orchards. Tevel’s drones are equipped with artificial intelligence capabilities that let them identify fruit types, blemishes, and the fruit’s level of ripeness. The drones operate with a single autonomous brain placed on a ground-based mobile unit.
The drone system is also capable of gathering and transmitting data, which is then analyzed using big data and AI.
The company claims it has a potential for $3 billion in annual sales to growers in the U.S. and Europe and an additional $30 billion in the rest of the world.
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