Taranis, a precision agriculture intelligence platform, today announced it has closed a $7.5 million Series A round of financing led by Finistere Ventures, an AgTech venture pioneer, and Vertex Ventures. Existing investors, EshbolInvestments, Mindset Ventures, OurCrowd, and angel investor Eyal Gura, also joined the round.
Today, the Ag industry loses more than $300 billion each year due to crop diseases and pests. Taranis says it is pushing farmers to rethink how they approach crop disease and pest control, as well as how they prepare for and address weather concerns— and helping them increase profits by more than 15 percent in the process.
“We invest in innovators with the ability to transform an industry and were drawn to Taranis’ exceptional leadership team, machine learning expertise, proven analytics platform and early on-farm successes,” said Yanai Oron, general partner, Vertex. “Taranis offers a comprehensive and affordable crop management solution, and the pest and disease prediction algorithms it developed set the company apart from its competitors.”
Taranis said it will use the latest investment to further mature its scalable pest and disease prediction platform and substantially grow its global reach.
In other investment news, Fornova this week announced the closing of a $17 million series B financing round to further accelerate the growth of its disruptive market intelligence and market visibility solutions for hotels worldwide. The Series B round was led by Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners (DTCP), with participation from Waypoint Capital and existing investor JAL Ventures.
More than 13,000 hotels have already adopted its solutions, including brands such as Marriott, Hilton, NH Hotels, and Premier Inn.
“Fornova’s patented technologies provide an unprecedented toolset to help hoteliers turn the tide in their favor, succeeding in this dynamic and fast-changing marketplace. Our products are pioneering new ways to meet the needs of today’s hoteliers – and we look forward to the exciting journey ahead, with our new investors and hotel partners,” said Fornova’s CEO, Dori Stein.
AiDoc recently announced a new $7 million funding round led by Tel Aviv VC firm TLV Partners. The Israeli startup’s artificial intelligence-powered medical imaging tool is meant to help radiologists work through their case load faster.
“We understood that there was a real hardship in this field,” AiDoc CEO and cofounder Elad Walach told Israeli business news site Globes. “It’s almost unbelievable what is required from a radiologist today. They are like fighter pilots, needing to handle hundreds of patients at the same time.”