Temasek co-leads US$30m funding in agricultural drone startup EAVision

CHINESE agricultural drone startup EAVision Technologies has raised US$30 million in a Series C funding round led by Temasek, Chinese state-sponsored fund Citic and venture capital firm Bits x Bites.

Other investors include German chemical company BASF, US-based Continental Grain Company and Chinese fruit retailer Pagoda, among others.

The funds will be used for research and development and accelerating market expansion in China and overseas, California-based EAVision said.

The company's unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology is developed by a team of computer vision engineers that includes former Tesla employees.

Its UAVs can be used to navigate challenging environments, such as farms in the mountainous regions of China, where tree height differences are as much as 10 metres.

Mountainous farming accounts for more than 34 per cent of China's cultivated land and is responsible for a vast variety of nut, fruit and tea production, EAVision said.

"UAVs are uniquely suited for China as its geographical characteristics make fixed-wing aircrafts or similarly large land-based machinery popular in the West less relevant," said Joseph Zhou, managing partner of Bits x Bites.

"This lends an opportunity for technological innovators like EAVision to cater solutions for these farmers to grow more with less, safely and cost effectively."

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