By 2015, we're gonna need 70% more produce to feed a predicted population of 10 billion. Today we're
gonna talk about the top five Agtech companies using AI in the world. Welcome to 5 mins 5
Ideas, I'm your host Samanvay. In a previous video I talked about the five uses of AI in agriculture.
Make sure you watch that video first, I'll leave the link in the description. Because you'll realise
exactly how impactful AI is in ensuring food security for the future. Now let's get on to
the list. The first company on the list is Benson Hill. The company was founded in 2012 in Missouri,
USA. They believe in creating healthier and more tasty food more sustainably. They do
so through the use of cloud biology, their proprietary software. It uses AI techniques
to accelerate the breeding process through greater precision and fewer breeding cycles. They say that
cloud biology is the GPS for plant scientists and farmers. This technology is groundbreaking because
it's replacing a process that is typically done manually by a farmer. This method has already been
used to produce ultra high protein soya beans. The company has secured $120 million
in funding, so it's safe to say that they're having a great impact as far as breeding plants
go. The second company on the list is Prospera. The company was founded in Tel Aviv, Israel in 2014.
The startup initially started with using computer vision technology and AI algorithm to spot pests
and diseases. It then moved on to fitting irrigation systems with data sensors to
enable them to optimize the irrigation process by monitoring the crop water stress index. It would
also collect data on the water usage and also provide you with a custom schedule for irrigation
planning throughout the year. Interestingly enough the company started by testing out their tech
in green houses because this reduced the number of variables that they had to deal with which
enabled them to fine-tune their AI algorithms more effectively. Recently they've partnered with
Valley irrigation to fit their data census on their center pivot irrigation systems. The
company has so far raised $22 million in funding. Third company on the list is FarmWise.
The company was founded in San Francisco in 2016. FarmWise provides weeding as a service
through their autonomous robot that uses AI to first detect the weeds and then it uses
its robot arms to remove them. Additionally they collect field data to then relay back to farmers
for better crop forecasting. Currently they support a number of plants such as
cauliflower, leafy greens and broccoli. The company has so far raised $20 million to fund
its weed killing operation. The fourth company on the list is Plenty. It was founded in 2014 in
San Francisco, USA. They use IOT sensors and machine learnings to grow plants indoors using only water,
artificial light and nutrients. They claim to only use 1% of the water as compared to
conventional farming methods. Additionally they say that they produce 350 times the amount of produce
per square foot as compared to a normal farm. These numbers are significant because that means that
we're using less resource to produce significantly more produce which is exactly what we're after
going into the future. Currently their farms are producing these four vegetables. The company has
raised a whopping $541 million in funding. It's safe to say that they're disrupting the farming
industry significantly using their vertical farms. The final company on the list is Gamaya.
Gamaya is a Swiss startup founded in 2015. They've developed hyperspectral cameras for
drones. The camera detects 40 spectral channels which means it can take images with details that
is impossible for the naked eye to detect, let alone a normal camera. Once the image is taken
by the camera, AI algorithms are used by Gamaya to produce crop health reports that allow the farmer
to figure out whether or not the plant has been affected by any kind of disease or by drought.
The company has raised $4 million in funding to continue producing state-of-the-art
crop reports to help farmers out. Hope you realise how pivotal AI is in changing the field of Agtech.
If you enjoyed the video, be sure to like, comment and subscribe and I'll see you next time.