Atlas AI Secures $7M to Accelerate Product Development and Sector Outreach
Airbus Ventures Leads Investment, with The Rockefeller Foundation and Micron Technology
PALO ALTO, California, April 14, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Atlas AI, an emerging leader in delivering economic and agricultural insights, has secured its $7M Series A funding round. Leading the investment is Airbus Ventures, with additional participation from Micron Technology and existing investor The Rockefeller Foundation. In sync with this announcement, Lewis Pinault, Partner of Airbus Ventures, joins Atlas AI's Board of Directors.
"As this planet grapples with system-wide challenges from climate and habitat disruption to concomitant disease and poverty incursions, the Atlas AI team shows us a way forward: intelligent views with real predictive power," Pinault noted. "At Airbus Ventures we're proud to support Atlas AI's exceptional ability to extract actionable data from cutting-edge satellite imaging capabilities, applying its unique system strengths to showing us sustainable ways forward."
This funding will be used to accelerate the company's product development and drive additional outreach to private and public sector customers—including the World Bank, DARPA, McKinsey, AGRA—the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa, and Econet Wireless, a diversified pan-African technology, telecom, and renewable energy business and leader in digital transformation.
"We're thrilled to be supporting the ongoing success of the Atlas AI team," said Zia Khan, Senior Vice President of Innovation at The Rockefeller Foundation. "By securing this new round of investment led by Airbus Ventures and joined by Micron we continue to gain confidence in the need for this critical mission-driven company to ensure its insights reach the organizations and communities that need it most."
Initially developed at Stanford University and launched in partnership with The Rockefeller Foundation, Atlas AI integrates the latest advances in satellite technology with high-quality ground-truthed data and proprietary machine-learning algorithms. Since its founding in 2018, Atlas AI has produced actionable insights into agricultural yield and economic development.
"Our partnership with Atlas AI has strengthened our AI capabilities in key business areas for our group, including agritech, fintech, mobility, logistics, and waste management," noted Strive Masiyiwa, Founder and CEO of Econet Wireless. "Putting this technology in the hands of farmers advances their use of tech and society as a whole."
According to McKinsey, more than 60% of sub-Saharan Africa is composed of smallholder farmers.
"We are honored to have the opportunity to work closely with the teams at Airbus Ventures, The Rockefeller Foundation and Micron Technology," said Victoria Coleman, CEO of Atlas AI. "We are confident that their own collective guidance and expertise in AI, data analytics, and global development can dovetail to ours to grow our continuing success as we extend our product into additional government and commercial sectors."
About Atlas AI
Atlas AI delivers high-resolution datasets on agricultural productivity, infrastructure, markets, and economic well-being across sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Based in Silicon Valley, CA, Atlas AI tackles the scarcity of economic data and market intelligence in developing countries. Utilizing integrated satellite imagery and the latest advances in artificial intelligence, Atlas AI predicts plot-level crop-yields, household wealth and consumption, and more, catering to the needs of financial service providers, agribusinesses, governments, and other organizations operating in emerging markets. It is a public benefit corporation, founded by a team of professors at Stanford University, established in partnership with The Rockefeller Foundation with support from Airbus Ventures and Micron Technology Inc. Visit http://atlasai.co.
About Airbus Ventures
Airbus Ventures is the venture capital arm of Airbus, inheriting its adaptive innovation, system thinking and international mindset. Building on this heritage, Airbus Ventures closely supports its portfolio companies to better understand, team and promote their founders' businesses.
Media Contacts:
Orli Robin, Marketing and Communications, Atlas AI
orli@atlasai.us
Victoria Coleman, CEO, Atlas AI
www.atlasai.co
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