South African agritech startup Aerobotics has claimed the top spot of the President Macron Africa Tech Award at Vivatech 2019; the pitch contest was held on May 17th in Paris.
The startup’s solutions focus on tree crop and pest disease monitoring processes by leveraging aerial data and artificial intelligence (AI).
The hotly contested competition also included 10 other startups; DataProphet, FinChatBot, Guardian Gabriel, HomeFarm, MedBit, Oniriq, PayDunya, TravelBudds and Sea Monster, who were selected by AfricArena.
The startup has, as part of the award, been invited to the 2019 AfricArena Conference which is to be hosted on 11 and 12 November in Cape Town.
In a statement earlier today, Aerobotics’ COO Tim Willis described the startup’s experience at VivaTech as having been an “amazing venture”. He said the startup’s involvement with AfricArena accelerator in 2018, has provided it with key opportunities to expand its network, particularly in Europe. “Our shared vision to scale African tech into global markets strongly aligns with our expansion plans. The positive uptake abroad of our product is proof that African tech is world class,” read the statement.
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He added that the company is excited at the prospect of a second year of the partnership with AfricArena VivaTech Challenge.
Aerobotics founders James Paterson and Benji Meltzer, met while studying robotics at college. James is a 10th generation farmer, who did a Masters at MIT in Aeronautics and Astronautics, while Benji did a Masters in Biomedical Engineering at Imperial College London before joining Uber as a data scientist.
