FruitSpec, an Israel-based portfolio company of The Trendlines Group Ltd., completed a $4 million investment round from investors such as AgVentures, a South Africa-based agtech investment company, and Hubei Forbon Technology Co. Ltd., China, for its yield estimation solution.
FruitSpec’s patented hyperspectral and computer vision algorithms enable the company to count the number of fruit and estimate fruit sizes for accurate early season fruit yield estimation.
“The investment from AgVentures and Forbon is a vote of confidence for the market problem we are solving with FruitSpec’s technology,” says Raviv Kula, chief executive officer of FruitSpec. “The funding will allow us to expand significantly and broaden our service to our customers, offering them a valuable solution to one of the most urgent issues facing the fruit production chain.”
“FruitSpec seamlessly addresses a critical pain point within the fruit market value chain, and its value proposition is easily grasped by industry players. FruitSpec’s solution is not merely an incremental improvement to existing industry norms, but a total disruption of the inaccurate and labor-intensive methods currently used. We see this investment as a clear illustration of AgVentures’ vision of investing in scalable technologies that disrupt legacy business models within the agricultural and food industries. We look forward to our journey with FruitSpec, and have full confidence in the team’s ability to roll the solution out across a global stage,” says Michael Prinsloo, executive at AgVentures.
“We strongly believe that FruitSpec’s technology and services will not only change the current practices in orchard management and logistics, but [also] revolutionize them,” says Renzong Wang, chairman and CEO of Hubei Forbon Technology Co. Ltd. “Given the fact that in China, apples are already traded as a future commodity in the exchange market, and more agricultural produce will be listed in the near future. So, the information provided by FruitSpec will be invaluable for the participants in the market. We are anxiously anticipating FruitSpec’s entry into the huge Chinese market with our support to serve all the stakeholders who will benefit from their services – growers, packing houses, logistics and sellers.”
