Israeli bee protection company Beewise today announced the completion of an $80 Million Series C financing round led by Insight Partners, with participation from Fortissimo Capital, Corner Ventures, lool ventures, Atooro Fund, Meitav Dash Investments Ltd, and Sanad Abu Dhabi. This brings the company’s total funding to over $120 million.
With over 30% of honeybee colonies disappearing each year, Beewise has developed a vitally needed solution. Utilizing 24/7 monitoring and smart technology that significantly increases pollination capacity and honey production, Beewise’s proprietary robotic beehive, the Beehome, seamlessly detects threats to a honeybee colony such as pesticides and the presence of pests and immediately defends against them. The company's automatic robotic system responds to threats in real time and requires no human intervention.
While protecting and defending, Beewise also helps honeybees thrive and flourish by reversing the trend of colony collapse. To help combat the detrimental effects of climate change on bees, Beehomes are thermally regulated; protect from fires, flooding, and Asian Wasps (murder hornets); and provide enhanced feeding techniques for when forage (food supply) is not available to the bees.
Beehome reduces bee mortality by 80%, resulting in increased yields of at least 50%, while eliminating 90% of manual labor of traditional beehives. Beewise currently manages more than seven billion bees, which equates to 25,000 acres of pollinated crops. Through the Beehome device, Beewise has saved over 160 million bees over the course of the last 12 months.
Beewise CEO Saar Safra said, "We are the only company on the planet that is deploying precision robotics in tandem with the world’s most innovative technologies including AI and computer vision in order to save the bees."
He added, "With thousands of orders placed in the US in just the last few months, and with this funding, Beewise will be able to meet incredible market demand through increased manufacturing, develop additional product iterations, and further improve pollination."
"Our entire global food supply is being threatened by a devastating collapse of the world’s honeybee population. Beewise impressed us as the only solution addressing every complex issue that is contributing to the collapse," stated Daniel Aronovitz, Principal at Insight Partners. "Not only have we funded a company with a fantastic business model; it also addresses one of the biggest challenges our planet is facing. We at Insight couldn’t be more excited to lead the largest investment in an Israeli agtech company to date."
The company also unveiled a new lighter-weight Beehome that increases hive mobility, enabling farmers to effortlessly care for millions of bees and ensure seasonal crop pollination.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on March 30, 2022.
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