Aerial spray drone startup Rantizo, an NAAA Allied Industry member, cashed $7.5 million of venture capital currency from Bayer, AgFunderNews reports. The Series A funding round was led by Bayer’s venture capital arm, Leaps by Bayer. Several other AgTech-focused investors also participated.
CEO Michael Ott told AgFunderNews that the fundraising round was spurred on by a dramatic uptick in demand during the 2020 season, although the degree to which the company’s activity increased was not disclosed. The new investments in Rantizo bring its total funding to $9 million.
Rantizo is based in Iowa City, Iowa. It received permission from the FAA in July 2019 to perform single drone spraying operations. It became the only company approved for drone spraying in Iowa at that time too. In July of this year, Rantizo received approval from the FAA to operate multiple drone swarms nationwide. The waiver allows for the operation of three autonomous drone sprayers by a single pilot and one visual observer.
The company stated that it primarily plans to use its new funding to expand into new markets. It will use the rest of the capital to make new hires and increase R&D for projects relating to crop pollination, data management and automation. Rantizo would also like to increase its list of 30 contractors to 100 sometime soon.
