The Venture Codex

Led · Equity · Oct 2024

Kando provides a solution that leverages proprietary machine learning models trained on in-house IoT wastewater data to optimize wastewater quality management. The platform enables significant cost savings, enhances wastewater reuse, and supports sustainable urban water management in cities across the US and Europe. The company intends to use the new funds to drive global expansion, focusing on the US and Europe. Kando raised $10M in the latest round, bringing total capital raised to $30M. The company is based in Tel Aviv and was founded by Zohar Scheinin and Ari Goldfarb. Kando develops an end-to-end wastewater smart management solution combining hardware, cloud software and expert services to monitor key wastewater quality parameters in real time. Its core product is a cloud-based SaaS platform that tracks and reports wastewater collection-system metrics and supports big-data analytics. The company says it will use new funding for product and business development and to continue improving its monitoring and analytics tools. Kando was founded in 2011 by CEO Ari Goldfarb and employs a team of about 20 industry veterans across environmental, chemical and process engineering, project management and software development. The announcement does not disclose revenue or user metrics.

Led · Series C · Apr 2023

CropX Technologies provides an Agronomic Farm Management System that synthesizes data from the earth and sky to deliver advanced soil and crop intelligence and digital decision and planning tools on an app capable of tracking multiple farms and fields. Its system supports irrigation planning that helps users conserve water and boost yields, while also optimizing energy and fertilizer use and supporting more sustainable farming practices. CropX is deployed in over 60 countries across all arable continents and now has over 100 employees in the US, the Netherlands, Israel and New Zealand, with a large research and development department. The company closed a $30M Series C round led by Aliaxis. CropX intends to use the proceeds to continue developing innovative capabilities for its agronomic farm management system and to acquire companies with complementary technologies and market reach. Through its partnership with Aliaxis the company will continue close collaboration in the field of data-driven precision irrigation. CropX develops advanced soil sensor technology and a cloud-based agricultural analytics platform that integrates with top irrigation systems and a mobile app to tell farmers where, when and how much to water or fertilize. The company integrates satellite, weather, crop modeling and topographical data with soil intelligence to deliver accurate prediction at scale. CropX’s platform is installed around the globe on the fields of leading farms and used by irrigation, seed and fertilizer companies. The company plans to use the new funding to extend research and development and accelerate penetration of its analytics platform across a broad cross-section of grower environments. CropX is led by CEO Tomer Tzach and recently added John Vikupitz as president to drive global expansion and market adoption. The company is based in San Francisco, CA and Israel. CropX builds an Internet of Soil composed of three wireless soil sensors and a mobile app that measures field variability and prescribes irrigation per zone. The company performs a one-time analysis of each field using publicly available soil and topography data to divide land into irrigation zones and show where to place sensors. Sensors are battery-powered, last up to four years, send soil data to the cloud, and the app calculates the water needed to maximize yield in each zone. CropX is currently deployed to power irrigation on about 5,000 acres across farms in Missouri, Colorado and Kansas, and farmers report water and energy savings of up to 25%. The system helps prevent overwatering and associated chemical run-off. With a $9 million Series A, the company plans to expand its reach across the country and pursue opportunities in the estimated $2.5 trillion crop yield enhancement market, noting that 90% of farmers currently don’t use irrigation-optimization tools.

Led · Series B · Nov 2022

Freight Farms develops vertical hydroponic farms housed in shipping containers that enable year-round local food production. Its farm automation software, farmhand®, allows indoor farm operators to control temperature, lighting, and other environmental variables and is flexibly architected to support many different indoor grow setups beyond Freight Farms’ containers. The company serves global customers ranging from small business farmers to corporate, hospitality, retail, education, and nonprofit sectors. Led by CEO Rick Vanzura, Freight Farms pursues a mission to create resilient, self-sufficient communities that can grow fresh, local, healthy food 365 days a year. The company raised $17.5M in a Series B3 round and intends to use the funds to expand operations and broaden its business reach. Freight Farms builds containerized vertical hydroponic farms for local production of fresh food. Founded in 2010 by CEO Brad McNamara and COO Jon Friedman and based in Boston, MA, the company pairs its hardware with an integral IoT data platform, farmhand®. It supports a large network of connected farms with customers in 25 countries and 44 U.S. states across small business, corporate, hospitality, retail, education and nonprofit sectors. The company raised $15M in a Series B to advance the technical potential of its platform through continued innovation. The round was led by Ospraie Ag Science with participation from existing investor Spark Capital, bringing total funding to more than $28M. Freight Farms plans to use the proceeds to continue product and platform development. Freight Farms builds shipping-container farms that grow lettuce using hydroponic technology, LED lighting, and automated watering and fertilizing systems. Its containers include cameras and a mobile app that let farmers track and control operations remotely. The company has deployed 100 farms to date. Financially, Freight Farms has completed a $7.3 million Series B and has now raised a total of $12 million. The startup previously raised $3.7 million in a 2014 Series A. Freight Farms was formed in 2010 by Brad McNamara and Jon Friedman. Freight Farms makes freight-truck-sized "farm-in-a-box" units that include all necessary equipment and storage to grow produce. The company released its 2015 model as an annual hardware update cycle and the founders describe it as the culmination of their performance improvements. The system can save up to 90% of water compared with traditional agriculture and may be able to go off-grid soon via solar or wind power. The farms auto-update their software over the internet, have a modular design to sit on brownfields with access to electricity and water, and use insulation to operate in different climates. Individual units are priced at $76,000 and the company highlights financing options for customers, including federal farm loan programs. The article also notes longer-term potential to ship units to regions like Africa and India and to serve both community and commercial growers.