Agxio secures £750,000 to scale AgriTech innovation and AI across UK

Aberystwyth based Agxio has completed a £750,000 equity investment round to support the development of advanced data science and AI solutions in agri-tech and agri-fintech.

The £750,000 investment comes from a mix of existing investors and the Development Bank of Wales plus match funding from new professional investors.

Founded in 2018, Agxio applies advanced automated machine learning to bring science and technology to the fore of the agricultural, life sciences and biotech industries. Based at the Aberystwyth Innovation and Enterprise Campus, and the Cambridge Science Park, the company is already expanding its award-winning team with the recruitment of five additional technologists, data scientists and researchers in Aberystwyth.

Agxio has developed a number of products that integrate into a single platform. It enables farmers, researchers and policymakers to harness and safely share data, models and best practice to deliver sustainable, in-season precision agriculture for both traditional and non-traditional farming solutions. Applications include yield optimisation, IoT sensor networks and monitoring, field mapping, crop selection, livestock health monitoring, field trials, predictive disease monitoring, sustainability metrics, drone analytics, and bio-tracking. 

Data-agnostic, Agxio’s AI automated machine learning solution can operate across a range of use cases and has been developed to apply to any industry vertical. It can reduce development time from months and years to days and weeks, and has been hailed as a “potential gamechanger” for disease analytics and data science.

Agxio CEO and co-founder, Dr Stephen Christie said “We are delighted to be working with the Development Bank of Wales who were always our preferred key strategic partner for the company and our plans in Wales. Wales is a world leader in both farming and technology. We aim to bridge both of those skills to create innovation in the food supply chain both domestically and internationally.”

Andrew Critchley, Investment Executive for the Development Bank said: “Agxio is an innovative technology business at the forefront of the agri-tech sector. The combination of cutting edge technology and a highly experienced management team means that the business has an exciting future ahead.

“The Development Bank’s equity investment from the Wales Technology Seed Fund will give them the potential to harvest the vast benefits that machine learning and data science can bring.”

Agxio is in the process of exploring channel and joint venture relationships with a number of companies, farms, academics and institutions based in Wales. These have the potential to interconnect the UK’s centres of excellence with Agxio’s academy for digital transformation in farming.

ENDS

About Agxio

Agxio is a data science and machine learning company that specialises in the biotech, life sciences and agricultural science industries. Founded in 2018 by a team of award-winning technologists, scientists, entrepreneurs and practitioners, Agxio has developed a range of expert AI applications that delivers advanced, beyond-human-scale solutions to solve complex, real-word business problems. One of the core solutions within the Agxio product suite is Apollo, which automates the building of machine learning solutions to enable practitioners to focus on their business problem without the need to become specialists in data science or machine learning.

As most real-world problems involve data and complexity that is beyond human scale, Apollo is the only viable approach to ensure optimum machine learning solutions are created. Agxio has a research hub based in Cambridge and a development centre in the Aberystwyth Innovation and Enterprise Centre. The Development Bank of Wales is a major investor in the company.

Agxio was recently named as a Global 20 Company to Watch by Business
Worldwide, and the CEO, Dr Stephen Christie, was recognised as the Tech CEO of the Year 2019 and 2020 by Innovation and Excellence Awards.

PRESS QUERIES: AMY DRON
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About Development Bank of Wales

For more information, please contact:
Helen Di-Girolamo
Tel: 029 2033 8128
E-mail: [email protected]
Media centre: developmentbank.wales/media

Notes to editors:

• The Development Bank of Wales was set up by the Welsh Government to support the economy of Wales by making it easier for businesses to get the finance needed to start up, strengthen and grow. The purpose of the Development Bank is to unlock potential in the economy of Wales by increasing the provision of sustainable, effective finance in the market.
• Launched in October 2017 it is a cornerstone organisation for delivery of public sector financial products, supporting micro to medium businesses in Wales and increasing the supply of finance. It promotes economic development through an adaptable delivery model that is responsive to market needs whilst providing continued value for money for public funds. It delivers key Welsh Government policy objectives measured through performance targets and providing investment management and support services across the whole of Welsh Government.
• The Development Bank of Wales invested £80m across 420 investments in the financial year 18/19 which in turn attracted £126m in private sector investment.