Beewise, the climatech precision robotics company on a mission to save the bees, today announced an $80 Million Series C funding round led by New York-based global venture capital and private equity firm 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.
More than 30 percent of honeybee colonies are disappearing each year, a rate that is not only economically devastating to farmers but represents a severe risk to global food supplies. While various diseases, pests, and pesticides lead to colony collapse, no other factor has been more devastating to the bees than climate change.
Beewise offers a cutting-edge 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. Its automatic robotic system responds to threats in real time and requires no human intervention. In addition to protecting and defending, Beewise affirmatively 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 approximately 90% of manual labor when compared to 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.
“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,” stated Saar Safra, CEO of Beewise. “Our Beewise team is thrilled to be supported by an incredible roster of investors for our Series C who understand our dedication, tenacity, and passion towards succeeding in saving the bees and reversing the trend of the bee colony collapse. With thousands of orders placed in the U.S. 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 anew lighter-weight Beehome that increases hive mobility, enabling farmers to effortlessly care for millions of bees and ensure seasonal crop pollination.
The newest Beehome iteration includes several game-changing features:
- While the rest of the market treats pests (e.g. Varroa mites) with chemicals, Beewise’s radical and revolutionary solution uses a chemical-free, heat, and robotics approach to achieve 99.7% success rate
- Improved automated remote harvesting, feeding, and thermo-regulation
- Optimization for mobility: 32% smaller and 30% lighter, making the Beehome 23% more cost-effective to transport
- A more efficient and effective feeding system, working faster and providing more food, which significantly increases bee colonies’ survival rate over winter when food sources are scarce
- A harvesting system that takes 9% less time to harvest, which results in a 5%+ yield increase in honey production
- Stronger solar panels to render more power in less time, allowing smaller batteries and thus helping achieve the above mentioned results
