India’s major automobile Mahindra & Mahindra(M&M), has recently invested $4.3 million(₹30 Crore) in Switzerland based AI Agritech startup, Gamaya SA, for an 11.25% stake in the startup by purchasing 300 common shares and 30,469 Series B preferred shares. ICOS Capital, VI Partners and some existing investors also participated in the about US$7.5-million Series B funding round. Through this investment, Mahindra says it will be able to make superior farming solutions easily accessible to the global farming community, in line with the company’s Farming 3.0 strategy.
Mahindra said in the filing that Gamaya will support the company’s farm division business by developing technology solutions. Rajesh Jejurikar, President, Farm Equipment Sector, Mahindra & Mahindra, said:
“With agriculture increasingly becoming technology-intensive, we at Mahindra are investing in future ready technologies to provide complete solutions to the global farming community. Our strategic association with Gamaya will enable us to develop and deploy next-generation farming capabilities such as precision agriculture and digital farming technologies. With this partnership, we expect to set new benchmarks in farming and its related services.”
Gamaya was established in 2015 and it specializes in providing crop-specific technology solutions for agriculture. It has come up with new technologies in Hyperspectral Imagery Analytics, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning which captures and interprets imagery to give farmers information about the state of their fields and crops. The company operates in Brazil and has several ongoing development activities in India, Ukraine and a few other countries. Gamaya improves efficiency & sustainability of farming by offering compelling agronomy solutions.
Mahindra also seems to be interested in deploying the solution widely in India, with Rajesh Jejurikar, President at Mahindra FES, stating:
“OUR STRATEGIC ASSOCIATION WITH GAMAYA WILL ENABLE US TO DEVELOP AND DEPLOY NEXT-GENERATION FARMING CAPABILITIES SUCH AS PRECISION AGRICULTURE AND DIGITAL FARMING TECHNOLOGIES.”