Founded in 2014, Taranis has worked diligently to offer farmers the most powerful combination of aerial imagery products and precision agriculture services. The Israel-based company has quickly expanded its global footprint and now monitors more than 20 million acres around the globe – half of which are in the U.S.

With the recent acquisition of California-based Mavrx, the company is taking its business – and its footprint in the U.S. – to new heights by adding Mavrx’s UHR (ultra-high resolution) imagery product to its portfolio.

“We are especially excited about the synergy farmers will get immediately,” says Ofir Schlam, CEO and cofounder of Taranis. “Adding the Mavrx UHR imagery product will help farmers recognize problematic zones even more quickly so Taranis AI² can classify every weed, insect, and disease and give farmers the insights they need to improve yield.”

Mavrx is the most broadly available, full-field imagery product on the market. It delivers 8 cm-per-pixel resolution images through a fleet of 60 planes in 30 states across the U.S. Because Taranis AI² can recognize and classify weeds, diseases, insects, and nutrient deficiencies on a single leaf at a resolution of 0.5 millimeters from a plane while flying at 120 mph or from a drone at 30 mph, it equips farmers with the necessary information to effectively monitor and protect their fields.

The bottom line: Combining Mavrx UHR with Taranis AI² gives farmers more power and control. 

“Taranis is the technology leader in ag aerial imagery. We saw this acquisition adding to its footprint in the Americas, while also adding richer feature sets for farmers,” says Arama Kukutai, Finistere Ventures partner and Taranis board member. “We are happy to support the company in implementing the strategy of creating the platform that farmers want and need. With too many subscale players in digital ag, this type of rollup is going to be more commonplace as the best-in-class players consolidate their position.”

This acquisition, Kukutai believes, is the beginning of a consolidation wave in the ag tech start-up space.

“There has been over $4 billion invested in ag tech in the last five years; digital and sensing tech were the heavy recipients in the first few years,” he says. “As these technologies mature, some clear leaders are emerging.”

And areas like imaging, farm equipment connectivity, and sensor platforms, Kukutai adds, are inundated with too many me-too players.

“And the lack of data standards and clutter hinders farmer adoption,” he says. “More companies will run out of money trying to get to scale, and there is some good technology out there for acquisition. In the end, these consolidations should help sort out standards and accelerate the progress toward platforms that can help integrate key decisions both in digital agronomy and the supply chain.”

The Mavrx sales and operations teams will join Taranis U.S. operations to provide the best possible service to existing and new clients looking to optimize production.

Learn more by visiting taranis.ag or mavrx.co.