The Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Co (SALIC) announced it was leading a £7m funding round of investments for artificial intelligence startup Hummingbird Technologies.
Hummingbird, which was set up in 2016, uses drone and artificial intelligence to provide advanced crop analytics to farmers.
Khalid Al Aboudi, Managing Director of SALIC, said that investment in Hummingbird, a company specialized in the field of new agricultural technologies, will enable further developing its agricultural and food security projects and expanding them into new horizons.
Hummingbird chief executive Will Wells voiced his appreciation for the investment, saying it would fund a recruitment drive in the UK and push its international expansion.
“As a machine learning business, our technology thrives on having more data to work with. Gaining access to Salic’s portfolio gives us an unprecedented opportunity to hone our capabilities even further.”
On the other hand, SALIC CEO Matthew Jansen CEO noted that Hummingbird is an attractive investment for SALIC.
“We see Hummingbird as an attractive investment, from our global portfolio’s point of view, and see it as a means of driving innovative best practice adoption across our global farmland operation,” he said.
