China agricultural drone company raises $30m

Oriza Holdings, BASF Venture Capital, Zhidao Capital, Songshan Capital, and Yongxin Oriental also participated. They were joined by Chinese fresh fruit retailer Pagoda and US-based Continental Grain Company. It follows Series A and B rounds of undisclosed size in 2017 and 2018 featuring CITIC Agricultural Industry Fund, Talent Capital, SR Capital, and Shanghai Fuli Investment Management.

EAVision specializes in autonomous crop protection drones that can navigate mountainous areas and other complex terrains by leveraging a combination of stereo vision sensors and algorithms. Mountainous farming is said to account for 34% of China’s cultivated land use and is responsible for much of the country’s output in nuts, fruit, and tea.

The company’s technology was developed by a team including former senior executives in the autopiloting control and safety program at Tesla and image detection system designers for the Chinese national railway information system. It has received 44 patents for its inventions to date and has deployed systems across China, Japan, Korea, and Africa.

Proprietary equipment includes a patented mist sprinkler that allows the vehicles to get as close as one meter from the crown of mixed-tree vegetation. The improved precision increases efficiency by reducing off-target drifting.

EAVision claims its drones have proven their advantage in field use across China, including on mountainous fruit farms where tree height differences are as much as 10 meters. According to a statement, the company achieved the same output as traditional farm workers at a sugarcane farm 50x faster. On a citrus farm, it demonstrated a 90% improvement versus traditional labor in preventing spider mites.

Joseph Zhou, a managing partner at Bits x Bites, notes that while fixed-wing aircraft are popular farming equipment in other markets, vertical take-off drones are uniquely suited to China’s geography. Recent VC activity targeting this concept includes an approximately $46 million investment in XAG that extended the drone maker’s Series C to more than $227 million.

Bits x Bites, which focuses on Chinese food and agriculture technology, reached a first close of $30 million on its second VC fund last year with support from Temasek. The target is $70 million.

CITIC Agri Fund Management is a joint venture of CITIC and Yuan Longping High-Tech. Its portfolio includes Cherry Valley Group, a duck genetics supplier and a breeder of Peking ducks.

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• Topics
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• Temasek Holdings
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