Augmenta, France, completed a $2.5 million seed financing round led by San Francisco-based Hardware Club and Athens-based Marathon Venture Capital. The investment will help the company expand operations in North and South America.

Augmenta manufactures state-of-the-art multispectral camera system retrofits to existing agricultural machinery like tractors, sprayers or spreaders. By utilizing instantaneous image processing and artificial intelligence, the system decides on the amount of farm inputs (e.g. fertilizers) every inch of the field actually needs and immediately applies it by controlling the rate of sprayer/spreader application through various machinery communication protocols (e.g. ISOBUS).

“The Augmenta team is ecstatic to see their hard work manifested in actual, boots-on-the-ground results, making the lives of farmers around the world easier and more profitable,” says George Varvarelis, co-founder and CEO Augmenta. “Most of our original team members have a farming background, which makes us laser-focused on delivering practical solutions that can be seamlessly incorporated into a farmer’s day-to-day operations.”

“While the idea behind precision agriculture has always been a good one, the technology to make it immediately actionable just hasn't been there. For the first time, we can deliver full, real-time automation and all the benefits that implies. We call it augmented agriculture, and it is already making a difference,” says Dimitri Evangelopoulos, co-founder and COO of Augmenta. 

“Augmenta combines extensive farming expertise and serious technical talent applied to real-world challenges. Augmenta is better for farmers, better for the environment, and ultimately, better for producers and consumers of food. We’re thrilled to be partnering with the Augmenta team to help their global expansion,” adds Aymerik Renard, general partner at Hardware Club.

“Augmenta went from a groundbreaking idea to the world's first fully autonomous variable rate application of farm inputs within a year,” says George Tziralis, partner at Marathon Venture Capital. “The company’s offering is being received with enthusiasm from farmers around the world, and it is triggering the interest of some of the biggest players in the space. We were happy to double down on our investment and truly excited about the company’s future.”