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HomePosts Tagged "Niqo Robotics"
Agribusiness, Agrotech, Company News, Digital Technologies, India, Start ups

The Niqo RoboThinner™ is an ultra-high precision spot sprayer that uses cutting-edge, real-time AI to target spray and selectively remove excess lettuce seedlings.

 Bangalore headquartered   Niqo Robotics a leading provider of AI robotics for sustainable farming, announced that it is expanding into the North American market with the launch of the Niqo RoboThinner™ to substantially improve the commercial viability of lettuce farming.

The Niqo RoboThinner™ is an ultra-high precision spot sprayer that uses cutting-edge, real-time AI to target spray and selectively remove excess lettuce seedlings, allowing the remaining plants the space they need to grow. This is a crucial process in lettuce farming to ensure the final crop is healthy and uniform in size.

After successfully commercialising over 100,000 acres with 50 deployed units and leading Asia in spot spray technology, Niqo Robotics is now expanding into the North America market to reduce the reliance on manual, time-consuming, and resource-intensive process with limited accuracy when farming Lettuce. Achieving optimal profitability for growers requires millimeter-level precision in lettuce thinning which current processes are unable to deliver.

Niqo RoboThinner™ offers a complete solution to current lettuce thinning challenges. Powered by the proprietary Niqo Sense™ AI camera and advanced deep learning models, it selectively targets excess seedlings, delivering a field-proven thinning accuracy of 97%.  It can precisely target plants as small as 1-inch Niqo RoboThinner™ provides exceptional time efficiency gains with the ability to thin 7 acres per hour and operate at speeds of up to 3 miles per hour. Growers adopting this technology are guaranteed a return on investment within two years.

Niqo RoboThinner is designed to be tractor-pulled and can be retrofitted to any tractor on the market, providing growers with a seamless and hassle-free upgrade. Engineered to be versatile, it can be used on any bed configuration making it truly farm friendly.

″We are excited to enter the North American market with Niqo RoboThinner™ as our debut product. Over the past year, we’ve engaged with growers in the Salinas and Yuma regions, gaining insights into their key challenges. Lettuce thinning is an escalating concern, requiring a dependable and sustainable solution. Niqo’s RoboThinner™ is rugged and reliable for effortless farm operations and has been precision engineered for exceptional accuracy and speed,” said Jaisimha Rao, Founder & CEO of Niqo Robotics.

The Niqo RoboThinner™ is an ultra-high precision

Agribusiness, Agrotech, Company News, Digital Technologies, India, Start ups

The company has shipped 50 sprayers for Kharif 2023 and delivered up to 60 per cent chemical savings for farmers.

In a breakthrough for the Asian agri-tech market, India-based deep-tech start-up Niqo Robotics has commercialized AI-assisted agrochemical spraying also known as spot spraying for the first time in the continent. The company shipped its flagship AI spot sprayers called Niqo RoboSpray™ across Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana. The 50 units deployed have sprayed over 90,000 acres this Kharif season. With a focus on cotton and chili crops this season, the company has served over 1800 farmers and saved up to 60 per cent in chemical costs using their AI technology.

AI-based spot spraying is an environmentally and financially sustainable alternative to broadcast spraying. The current practice of broadcast spraying involves indiscriminate spraying of chemicals like pesticides, insecticides, fungicides, and herbicides on farmlands without differentiating between target plants and soil. This chemical-intensive and climate-hostile method drives up input costs for farmers and poses significant risks to soil health, food safety, and the health of farm communities.

Niqo spot sprayers use a proprietary AI camera built with deep learning models to differentiate between target and non-target areas to selectively spray the right dosage of chemicals only on the plant, without spraying the soil. This plant-level target spraying saves up to 60 per cent in chemical input, maximizing ROI for farmers and limiting chemical pollution on-farm ecosystems. The company also carried out 218 internal efficacy trials to confirm that spot spraying maintains the agrochemical’s effectiveness in protecting against pests. This study has been externally validated by a leading agricultural university and is due for publication soon.

Niqo offered spot spraying as a service through village-level entrepreneurs in the Akola, Guntur, and Khammam regions making the technology accessible to farmers. Farmers who have availed the benefits of Niqo spot spray reported up to 60 per cent chemical cost savings in the early stages of spray without any compromise on efficacy.

“Global food future hinges on how quickly tech-enabled sustainable practices like spot spraying can be adopted at scale. At Niqo we have built a commercially viable spot spray technology that is accessible to farmers and reliable for rugged farm operations. This has allowed us to scale making us a frontrunner in spot spray technology, globally. There is immense pride in driving this progress right here in India” said, Jaisimha Rao, Founder & CEO of Niqo Robotics.

The company has shipped 50 sprayers for

Agrotech, Company News, Finance, India, R&D

The fund is committed by Morocco-based Mohammed VI Polytechnic University and the OCP Group to back breakthrough sustainable technology in India

Bidra Innovation Ventures (Bidra) has announced a $200 million commitment by Morocco-based, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) and the OCP Group. The initiative will expand Bidra’s investment scope to include innovations in sustainable agriculture, energy, water and other climate technologies with a focus on emerging markets like India, Africa, and others.

This latest round of funding comes one year after Bidra launched a $50 million fund backed by the same investors focused on agriculture. In India, Bidra is an active investor in Niqo Robotics, a Bangalore-based agricultural robotics start-up focused on AI-powered sustainable spot spraying technology.

Over the past year, Bidra has nurtured multiple breakthroughs in technology. They have supported several innovative sustainable tech companies including Niqo Robotics, an AI tech-driven company that reduces chemical volumes, Agrospheres, an ag-tech company developing environmentally friendly crop protection products, and Pattern Ag, which uses predictive analytics to customise crop fertility plans.

“UM6P recognises the role innovation must play to sustainably solve global challenges,” said Amar Singh, Head of Group, Bidra Innovation Ventures. “We are grateful for UM6P’s visionary leadership and support as we continue to back innovators forging the future via sustainable technologies for Africa and beyond. Having OCP’s support is a tremendous advantage because now we can extend OCP’s regional know-how and distribution capacity to startups that are ready to scale. If you have technology that is ready for prime time, consider Bidra as a gateway to scaling your technology in India, Africa and beyond,” Singh further elaborated on the latest fundraising.

India-based startup Niqo Robotics from Bidra’s portfolio has made rapid strides over the past year and is gearing up to launch the world’s largest fleet of AI-powered green-on-green spot spray agricultural robots in India by June 2023. “We are immensely proud of our association with Bidra through the past year. We have amazing synergies, and our partnership has empowered Niqo Robotics to scale our breakthrough sustainable spot spraying solution from lab to land and potentially revolutionise crop protection applications in agriculture, worldwide,” said Jaisimha Rao, Founder and CEO of Niqo Robotics

Companies backed by Bidra not only benefit from the financial resources of UM6P and the OCP Group but also from the organisations’ domain expertise and expansive global footprint. Talent, customer, and capital – these are the three inputs that every founder is looking for. Bidra, UM6P and OCP are looking to assist disruptive sustainable technologies in all three.

The fund is committed by Morocco-based Mohammed

Agrotech, Company News, India, Start ups

The rebrand is ahead of the company’s plan to launch the world’s largest fleet of commercial green on green AI spot spray robots in India by June 2023.

Bangalore based AgTech startup TartanSense, has rebranded as Niqo Robotics. The rebranding comes on the heels of the company launching their proprietary green on green AI spot spray robots in India. With a fleet size of 50, this will be the world’s largest commercial deployment of AI powered robotic sprayers. Niqo’s proprietary green on green tech leverages real time AI assisted computer vision to selectively spray chemicals on plants resulting in up to 60 per cent chemical and water savings.

Niqo Robotics seeks to challenge the status quo of conventional farming methods by pioneering an AI powered robotics revolution in agriculture. This revolutionary spirit of the company is strongly embodied in the new brand identity. The name Niqo is derived from the word “Nikolaos”, meaning Victory of the People. The victory flag in the logo is symbolic of the brand’s ambition to liberate the entire farming ecosystem from unreliable availability of labour and unsustainable farming practices. Niqo aims to do this through the scientific application of AI-powered robotics in all major farming activities like sowing, spraying, and harvesting.

As Niqo Robotics, the company’s mission is to make AI powered agricultural robots reliable as well as accessible. Staying true to this mission, Niqo Robotics has built their proprietary green on green AI spot spray tech stack to seamlessly integrate with existing agricultural sprayers in the market, making it truly accessible.

Speaking on the rebrand, Jaisimha Rao, CEO and Founder Niqo Robotics said “It has taken us many years of innovation, frugal engineering, and rigorous testing to cover the distance from lab to land. The rebrand couldn’t have come at a better time. As we get ready to launch the world’s largest fleet of green-on-green AI spot spray robots to market, we need a strong identity that can boldly carry us into this exciting future. The name Niqo represents our hunger to win in this challenging ecosystem of robotics and agriculture. We are especially proud that India is leading the way for commercialising AI powered spot spraying at scale”.

“Niqo unabashedly embodies our innovative thinking and revolutionary spirit. This is reflected in every aspect of the brand’s identity from the name to the logo, typeface, colours, voice, and a strong customer centric narrative. For example, Niqo typeface is custom designed, inspired by postmodern style and data visualisation systems. The sharpness and slight curves create contrast and a strong image. It is an ode to the intricate engineering that goes into building our robots. This is the steadfast foundation we need as we take our first steps as a consumer brand” said Arha Padman, Chief Marketing Officer, Niqo Robotics.

The rebrand is ahead of the company’s