Aurea Imaging, a Dutch agtech company specializing in sensor systems to enable orchard farming at tree level, announces closing its Series A investment of EUR 2.8 mln.
Aurea was founded in 2016 when precision technology in fruit orchards was in its very first days and pioneering growers were looking for ways to farm at tree-level. The company says there’s an average of 3,000 trees planted for every hectare, with strong variation in fruit load. To get the most out of every tree, they were looking to get their machinery to perform custom treatments for every individual tree, replacing conventional full-field applications.
The round will enable Aurea to further scale deployments of TreeScout, a tractor-mounted sensor system enabling tree-level execution of farm applications throughout the season. TreeScout scores individual trees for parameters such as blossom density and vigour, generating digital prescription maps for machinery behind the tractor such as sprayers. The investment will also fund the continuous development of new applications for TreeScout.
The investment marks the start of the next phase for the company where the company will direct all its focus on TreeScout and its applications. To align with this focus, going forward founder Bert Rijk will take on responsibility for product as chief product officer. The company is also welcoming co-founder Joost Hazelhoff as its new CEO:
Joining existing pre-Series A investor Pymwymic , a Netherlands-based impact investor, a consortium of ROM Utrecht Region, Knop Ventures, Goeie Grutten Impact Fonds and BarUni Family Fund.