French energy giant EDF partners with Tzemach Mifalim

agRE.tech is pioneering cutting-edge solutions for the use of advanced robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) in agriculture and climate technology. This initiative addresses the challenges of agricultural labor and aims to increase productivity while meeting global goals for large-scale green energy production on the same farmland.

The company has closed a $2 million pre-seed round with significant investment from entities including Tzemach Mifalim, a founding partner. Tzemach Mifalim, through the Kinneret Innovation Center, is a leader in climate and agricultural technologies. In addition, EDF, a leader in renewable energy production in Israel, has joined the venture, bringing its international energy expertise to advance the vision and realize the enormous potential of green energy production on agricultural land.

Over the past year, agRE.tech has developed an advanced concept in the form of a robotic operating system for agrovoltaic areas. This system operates on a photovoltaic infrastructure, collecting extensive, repeatable and accurate data in the field. Thanks to artificial intelligence, it allows to perform complex autonomous agrotechnical tasks, such as precision spraying, pruning and autonomous harvesting. At the same time, it performs automatic monitoring and maintenance of the solar field.

CEO and co-founder Elad Levy, who has a background in robotics as the former founder and CEO of Roboteam, which has thousands of its robotic systems in operational use worldwide, leads the company. Yaniv Marmur, with extensive experience in managing and leading development teams in complex multidisciplinary systems engineering (green energy and medicine), has joined as CTO.

The company has registered several patents in the field and has established a development center above a vineyard, where the robot’s operating system is already in use. As part of the company’s open agRE.os (operating system) solution, agRE.tech has promoted several engineering collaborations with ag-tech and climate-tech companies to integrate their technological solutions in the development field.

Elad Levy, CEO of agRE.tech, said: “After more than a decade in the world of defense and civilian robotics, we have discovered that the climate and agriculture sector is an emerging field that has the potential to contribute to global efforts to address the climate crisis and global food security. Combining these worlds creates enormous potential for technological and business innovation. We are honored that major market players like EDF and Tzemach share our vision to lead the field of agri-robotics and create a green future for us all.”

Nadav Leshem, Head of Agro-Voltaics, EDF Israel, commented: “The agro-voltaic industry is a complex challenge that requires a holistic approach to all the resources, needs and performance of the different players in the equation, especially the symbiosis between the different components. EDF Israel Renewables focuses on three main areas – research and development, promoting innovation and creating strategic partnerships across the value chain. We are happy and proud to be part of the agRE.tech and Tzemach Mifalim journey. We believe in the team and the solution that will serve as a springboard for the implementation of advanced agro-voltaic projects in the near future.”

Menashe Shalom, CEO of Tzemach Mifalim, added: “Tzemach Mifalim aims to lead innovation in agriculture and climate technology. In this regard, we have promoted the cooperation with EDF along with our investment in agRE.tech, which combines the corporation’s long-standing knowledge in agriculture, local and international business connections with the advanced capabilities of Tzemach Technologies. Tzemach sees itself as a leader in this groundbreaking field that will carry the message to renewable agriculture and green energy production.”