Prospera Technologies, a Tel Aviv-based company developing artificial intelligence solutions to help farmers grow crops more efficiently, was acquired by US-based irrigation and agriculture company Valmont Industries for about $300 million, the companies said Wednesday.
Prospera’s machine vision technologies monitor plant development, health and stress by analyzing multiple layers of climate and visual data from a crop field and providing actionable insights to growers. Prospera has recently been listed among the World Economic Forum Technology Pioneers and CB Insights Top 100 AI Companies, Frost & Sullivan New Product Innovation and Fast Company World Changing Ideas, and has received the AgFunder Innovation Award.
Valmont and Prospera have worked together since 2019 to develop real-time crop analysis and anomaly detection solutions, resulting in strong adoption and greater returns for the grower. The partnership has expanded its intelligent solutions, monitoring five million acres in 2020 against an original estimate of one million, with twice as many growers using the service as compared to 2019. Grower adoption is expected to double in 2021 with greater acceleration in the near-term, the companies said.
The company, which was founded in 2014, has raised a combined $22 million in two funding rounds by strategic investors including Bessemer, Qualcomm, Cisco and Tekfen.
“Today’s acquisition is a testament to our commitment to make the farm more efficient and increase productivity while dramatically improving sustainability,” said Valmont president and CEO Stephen G. Kaniewski. “Building on the successful partnership with Prospera, we are accelerating our commitment to provide services that enhance the lives of our customers and the communities in which they operate, as well as finding new ways to achieve higher crop yields using less – land, water, chemicals, fertilizers, fuel and time.”
“Our strategic partnership has demonstrated the unique combined value of Prospera’s capabilities and Valmont’s agricultural expertise and market leadership,” said Prospera co-founder and CEO Daniel Koppel. “This combination is the fastest way to scale impactful ag-tech solutions. We are excited about the future and the opportunity to continue to further our work to feed an expanding global population through our machine-learning technologies that allow growers to make more informed, efficient and scientific decisions.”