It's been a busy year for Raptor Maps, a Cambridge-based startup that uses drone and mapping technology to help farmers increase the yield of their crops and make more money. The startup graduated from the highly acclaimed Y Combinator startup Accelerator a few months ago and has been running five paid pilots across the U.S. Now it has one more milestone to add before the end of the year: an investment from the venture capital fund of drone software startup Airware.
Airware's Commercial Drone Fund announced on Tuesday it has invested an undisclosed amount of money into Raptor Maps, which first made waves in the Boston startup scene last year as the winner of 2015 MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition. The startup combines drones, tractor-mounted sensors and software that allows farmers to "precisely map, analyze and measure the quality of crops at critical times during the growing season," which in turn helps them maximize crop yield.
"What impressed us with Raptor Maps’ product is that it collects a vast amount of data, distills it down, and correlates actions that a grower can take on a season-to-season basis — something we haven’t seen in other drone products," John Kolaczynski, head of corporate development for the Commercial Drone Fund, said in a statement. "We believe this is a great product for the agriculture sector that can drive increased yields and reduced costs for growers."
Nikhil Vadhavkar, CEO of Raptor Map, told me the startup plans to use the funding to demonstrate its technology's applicability to a number of specialty crops, going beyond the harvest monitoring work it has done for potatoes and onions. The funding will also help Raptor Maps develop a way to more easily scale its business.
As a result of helping farmers maximize their crop yield, Vadhavkar said Raptor Maps is not just helping farmers save money — it's also helping reduce food waste. "What a lot of people don't realize is there's tons of food waste because growers are incentivized to have really nice looking vegetables," he said.
Steve Phipps, a Washington-based farmer who has been using Raptor Maps, said he plans to use the data he gathered with the startup's tech to influence how he does his harvest next season.
"Raptor Maps gave me a breakdown of potato sizes on my 130-acre field. The size analysis showed I could reduce an input and save money while maintaining yield,” Phipps said. "The professional crew installed hardware and gathered data without interrupting our operation—zero downtime and provided a unique and valuable service, and I will use them again next year."
Raptor Maps plans to go commercial next year.
