XAG produces drones for crop protection, fertilizer spraying, remote sensing, and seeding that can be controlled from a smartphone, and has expanded into ground-based agricultural robots, surveillance cameras, and weather sensors. The company says it operates across more than 100 million acres of farmland in 42 countries and serves close to 5 million smallholder farmers. XAG reported revenue growth of 253% for 2020. The startup plans to use the new funding to boost R&D and further develop its robotics products. Management frames its strategy as building an unmanned agro-ecosystem to support rural development and global food security. Founded in 2007 and having entered agtech in 2013, XAG (also known as XAircraft or Jifei Technology) builds hardware and software for precision agriculture. Its product suite includes agricultural and remote-sensing drones, unmanned ground vehicles, and agriculture IoT devices and software that enable accurate crop spraying, granular spreading, field scouting, on-farm material delivery, and real-time monitoring and management. By the end of August, XAG’s services covered more than 8.72 million farmers and 600 million acres, and the company had expanded to 42 countries and regions outside China, focusing on Japan, Korea, and Australia. The firm deployed drones for COVID-19 disinfection and says the pandemic increased demand for unmanned devices, though it did not disclose specific sales figures. XAG plans to use new capital to strengthen R&D and manufacturing, improve channel-service capabilities, and build digital agricultural infrastructure and “unmanned farms.” The article situates the raise against a forecast that China’s smart-agriculture market could reach RMB 200 billion (about USD 30.4 billion) this year.

Total raised

$228M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Series C

Latest activity

Mar 2021