PlanetWatchers Raises $11M in Series A Funding to Expand Its Crop Watching Capabilities

Food security is a global issue, with many not having easy access to safe and nutritious food. However, technology like PlanetWatchers’s industry-leading SAR-based data analytics is helping improve agriculture and increase food security. The company’s SAR data ensures that it can provide in-depth, accurate insights used by crop insurers and agricultural input providers. After receiving $11 million in new funding, PlanetWatchers is looking to expand its team and invest more into its key SAR technology, which is detailed in the following press release.

PlanetWatchers (‘the Company’), a revolutionary crop monitoring company that can provide detailed crop insights, at any time, regardless of weather and lighting conditions, has raised $11m as part of its series A funding round as part of the Company’s ambitious growth plans.

PlanetWatchers is a world-leading technology company that uses advanced machine learning to support crop insurers and the agricultural industry in verifying cover crops, tillage, planting dates, acreage, crop classification and weather damage at scale. The Company uses Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data to provide accurate insight at scale. PlanetWatchers exploits the unique benefits of SAR, to create in-season insights that reduce overheads and increase customer satisfaction.

The Company, which works with a large number of crop insurance companies, uses time series-based radar data to provide detailed analysis of claims without ever visiting the field. The use of SAR, a powerful remote sensing technology bouncing microwave signals off the Earth’s surface, helps PlanetWatchers to detect physical properties and the changes to them over time, proving valuable insight to its customers.

The latest funding round builds on the successful pre-series A round, which the Company closed in June 2021 and allows PlanetWatchers to significantly increase its commercial footprint with crop insurers and agricultural input providers. The proceeds raised will also allow the company to continue to invest in its industry-leading SAR-based data analytics alongside the expansion of its commercial teams to maximise opportunities and address the increasing market demand to help solve global food security issues.

Seraphim Investment Trust PLC (‘Seraphim Space”), the world’s first listed SpaceTech investment company financing the growth of companies operating in the ‘new space’ ecosystem, and Creative Ventures, a deep tech venture firm investing in early-stage companies solving humanity’s most critical crises, co-led the funding round. The Trendlines Agrifood Fund, BIG Capital and Ridgeline Partners also invested in the $11million funding round.

Dominic Edmunds, Chief Executive for PlanetWatchers, said: “I’m delighted that PlanetWatchers can now take the next steps on our ambitious journey to tell the story of every field. We are thrilled to have the support of both Serpahim and Creative as co-leads and the other investors in the round. We look forward to expanding our market-leading technology and our commercial footprint together. 

Andre Ronsoehr, Principal at Seraphim Space, said: “PlanetWatchers have achieved an awful lot over the past year, and I am proud of the entire team at the company. They have established themselves as a great partner to major companies that are vital in ensuring today’s global food supply chains, namely crop insurers and agricultural companies. The team’s capabilities in analysing synthetic aperture radar (“SAR”) data and giving customers actionable insights are second to none, and we are very happy to back them in fulfilling their full potential.”

Champ Suthipongchai, General Partner at Creative Ventures, said: “Rarely do I see a company so well managed and executed as PlanetWatchers, thanks to its CEO, Dominic, and its executive team. The company continues to grow by leap and bounds since our initial investment and is clearly a category leader within the crop insurance industry. I have utmost confidence in its potential to upend multiple other industries through its satellite aperture radar (“SAR”) technology.

The original press release can be found on PlanetWatchers’s website.