Microsoft led funding secured by SA big data startup ‘The Awareness Company’
Big data startup based in South Africa The Awareness Company has been chosen for Microsoft South Africa’s AgriTech Program, which will result in equity investment.
The Awareness Company was founded in April 2018, with the team having previously collaborated in the public sector on research, development, and innovation.
Data-driven storytelling is used by the firm to assist people, communities, and organisations become more efficient and effective. Its technology, HYDRA, integrates AI, IoT, and data analytics to offer solutions for agriculture and conservation, security and safety, and smart buildings and cities.
Microsoft South Africa is interested in the agricultural sector, and the business has chosen The Awareness Company as the recipient of its AgriTech Program. The major goal of the initiative is to accelerate digital transformation in the agriculture sector by partnering with firms that produce high-impact solutions and empower smallholder farmers.
The Awareness Company will create and roll out three high-impact solutions in the agriculture sector within the next year as part of the initiative and with the help of the funds. Smallholder farmers will be able to leverage operational information to increase efficiency in their farming operations with these technologies. They will be able to lower production costs, enhance yields, develop value chain connections, and improve farm security as a result of this.
“The country’s two to four million smallholder farmers play a critical role in driving food security and economic participation, but they face specific and deep-rooted challenges, and the sector is typically underserved in terms of high-tech solutions,” said Priaash Ramadeen, co-founder and CEO of The Awareness Company.
“That’s why Microsoft’s support and investment in helping us as a local, homegrown business to grow and develop solutions that focus on solving real-world problems is so meaningful. The programme is a jump-start that has enabled us to create and update products that synchronise with the work we have already done in the agricultural space to promote sustainable agriculture and food security through intelligent data.”
“Technology – specifically agri-tech – has the ability to empower our country’s smallholder farmers by enabling them to become more productive, efficient, competitive, commercially viable and sustainable,” said Lillian Barnard, CEO of Microsoft South Africa.
