• Taranis

  Participated · Series A · May 2017

  Taranis provides an AI-powered crop intelligence platform that leverages leaf-level imagery and machine learning to deliver full-service, leaf-level data capture for growers and ag advisors. Its models are trained on a dataset of over 200 million AI-data points. Since starting in 2015, Taranis has worked with top agricultural retailers and crop protection companies, serving millions of acres across the United States, Brazil, and Europe. Led by CEO Bar Veinstein and President Ofir Schlam, the platform helps ag advisors demonstrate value to growers, accelerate decision making, simplify management, and improve growers' bottom lines. The company raised $40M in a Series D that brought total funding to $100M. Taranis plans to use the funds to accelerate growth, expand globally, and invest in technologies to make the agri-carbon market a reality for growers. Taranis provides aerial imaging and analytics to deliver leaf-level pest diagnosis and customized prescription plans via its AI2 SmartScout Solutions. Its platform leverages a database of more than 1 million threat species and combines drone and plane imagery with satellite feeds to create high-resolution (0.3 millimeter pixel) maps. The company says it can cover 100 acres in six minutes and produce diagnoses 20 times faster than manual scouting with 20 times more data points. About 80% of clients currently use Taranis contractors rather than operate their own equipment. Planned uses of funding include improving diagnostic accuracy and comprehensiveness, identifying new pests and weeds across more crops, and geographic expansion across the Americas and into Asia-Pacific markets. Taranis intends to integrate its data with partners and equipment providers rather than move into spraying itself. Taranis provides aerial scouting and deep-learning software that analyzes high-resolution images captured by high-speed drones or manned aircraft to identify insect damage, nutrient deficiencies, diseases and other crop issues. Its platform delivers magnified images detailed enough for users to see which pests are affecting plants. The software targets commodity crops including corn, cotton, wheat, soybean, sugarcane and potatoes. Taranis says its technology is currently used by farms in Argentina, Brazil, Russia, Ukraine and the United States. The company plans to expand into more countries with the new funding, explicitly including Australia. Founded in 2015 by Ofir Schlam, Asaf Horvitz, Eli Bukchin and Ayal Karmi, the company combines hardware (aerial imaging) and AI to streamline traditional, labor-intensive crop monitoring. Taranis offers a precision agriculture intelligence platform that combines deep learning with proprietary datasets including sub-mm aerial imagery, field sensors, satellite imagery, weather forecasts and data from its field scouting app. The solution helps farmers monitor fields, make informed decisions and act to prevent losses from crop disease and pests. Led by CEO Ofir Schlam, the company is focused on scaling its pest and disease prediction platform and expanding its global reach. Taranis has subsidiaries in Argentina and Brazil and is establishing a U.S. office while expanding into India and Russia. The company has raised $9.5M in total funding to date and intends to use the new proceeds to accelerate platform growth and international expansion. Taranis builds crop-disease prediction software that combines public weather services, satellite imagery, and a proprietary high-resolution weather forecast model to detect micro weather conditions. It layers a localized model with local public data and deploys weather stations roughly every two miles on farms that lack them, and can integrate with farms' existing stations or cover station costs for full-service customers over more than 1,000 acres. The company offers a SmartScout app that integrates predictions and sends messages and chat notifications to farmers' networks of service providers to help prioritize farm visits. Taranis focuses on predicting disease before crop impact—for example detecting infection periods for fire blight—and aims to reduce spray loads and increase yields. The service is priced at $3 per acre with no user limits. Go-to-market efforts target Brazil, Argentina and the U.S., prioritizing soybeans, corn and cotton, though the product can be used for other crops. With proceeds from its seed round, the company is expanding its team from four co‑founders (who self-funded the startup's first 18 months) to about 10 staff including developers, meteorologists, agronomists and sales.

No current team members are available.