New agtech start-up proves a trailblazer
Viticulture innovation winner closes $1.5m in over-subscribed capital raise
Cropsy Technologies proved the potential of their crop vision system after raising $1.5 million in an oversubscribed capital raise. This achievement follows the accolades received at the 2021 Fieldays Innovation Awards and being recognised as one of New Zealand’s most promising early-stage companies by the Technology Investment Network.
Cropsy co-founder Leila Deljkovic says they couldn’t have achieved this without the support of their early trial partners and customers.
“The close of our first capital raise has been a thrilling start to 2022. We are so humbled to have this opportunity to leave our mark on viticulture’s vast, rich history — we can’t wait to take our newest investors and board members on this journey.”
The agtech start-up addresses the frustrations growers face every season with pests, disease, and managing crops on huge scales. With their scalable Ai-enabled and Gps-tracked insights, Cropsy can monitor every plant with high-definition image capture, empowering growers to know their crop and make better, more efficient decisions.
The hardware attaches to an existing tractor, watching every plant as workers go about their daily tasks — enabling growers to achieve new levels of performance, sustainability, profitability, with no extra effort.
Already proving themselves to be trailblazers in the primary sector, Cropsy took home two awards at the 2021 Fieldays Innovation Awards in the Early-stage Award and Young Innovator Award categories.
Deljkovic notes that Cropsy’s Innovation Award win and experience exhibiting in the Fieldays Innovation Hub helped them get the attention of the media and investors, which sped up the commercialisation process.
“I loved sharing my passion for agtech and Cropsy’s innovation with people in the Fieldays Innovation Hub,” said Deljkovic.
“You could see the ‘wow’ moment in someone’s eyes when they realise the scope of the information we can provide to a grower, whether they were in the industry or not.”
Fieldays Innovation Awards is now accepting applications for the 2022 intake. The globally renowned awards clearly represent the innovation lifecycle across three
categories: prototype, early-stage, and growth and scale.
Special recognition is also given to younger innovators, with an award for the Fieldays Young Innovator of the Year.
The total prize package is over $60,000 worth of cash, services, and products with tailored opportunities to progress innovations in each award category.
As for what’s next for Cropsy, Deljkovic says they’re aiming for their organisation to be recognised as “the brains and operating system behind vineyards and orchards of the future”.
“Our mission is to provide certainty to growers in a changing world and forge new frontiers in fruit growing with adoptable and transformative technology.”
Entries for the Fieldays 2022 Innovation Awards are open now until May 1. Apply now at fieldays.co.nz/ innovation. Fieldays is based on a 114-hectare site at Mystery Creek 10 minutes from Hamilton and is the largest agricultural event in the southern hemisphere.