Aydi, an AI-powered platform for growers, has closed a US$7.5 million seed round with investment from COTU Ventures, Daltex, and Nuwa Capital, alongside Magrabi Agriculture and Foundation Ventures.
The capital will support the rollout of Orth, an AI agronomy assistant designed to provide real-time, personalized insights for growers facing higher input costs, climate challenges, and limited access to expertise. Hassan Fayed, founder and CEO of Aydi, said: "Closing the seed round is a major milestone for Aydi and validates our mission to give every grower access to world-class agronomy. Experts say global food demand is set to rise 70% by 2050. However, according to our company's internal estimates, 90% of growers lack access to timely agronomic expertise, given there is only 1 agronomist per 10,000 acres (4,047 hectares) worldwide. Orth changes that by turning decades of agricultural science into an easy-to-use AI assistant that gives farmers instant recommendations, detects problems early, and helps them grow higher-quality crops."
Orth combines satellite and weather monitoring, predictive analytics, and conversational AI to provide plot-level insights. According to Aydi, this can deliver efficiency and yield improvements of more than 20%. The platform has received backing from investors who see it as a tool for digitizing agronomy. Amir Farha, founder of COTU Ventures, said: "We believe that agriculture needs its AI moment, and Orth has the ability to empower millions of growers to farm smarter and more profitably, and produce more efficiently and sustainably."
Nuwa Capital and Daltex also emphasized Orth's role in providing smaller farms with access to agronomy expertise historically available only to large operators. Ibrahim El Naggar, VP of Operations at Daltex, noted: "Understanding field context is one of the most difficult challenges facing technology solutions in the agriculture space. Aydi & Orth provide growers with the ability to capture, own, and understand their field data by leveraging AI to enhance on-ground operational insights. This is a solution for growers, by growers."
Orth was launched at Fruit Attraction in Madrid on September 30, with both free and paid tiers available for individuals and businesses. Aydi intends to scale Orth into a broader AI operating system for agriculture, aiming to reach millions of farmers globally.
Source: Middle East Entrepreneur