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Tenacious Ventures has backed the agtech startup in a $1.4 million pre-seed round, joining IP Group and AgFunder. This investment will provide working capital to transition the company's technology to field demonstration systems for farmers.

Weeds consume water and take away from the yield and profitability of farmers. The current choices for dealing with weeds at the agricultural scale are mainly limited to chemistry. The Azaneo team have developed a proprietary, electric weed technology that will allow farmers to manage weeds with low power requirements and at treatment speeds that do not impact their everyday operations.

"The electrification of agriculture is just beginning, and we are very excited to be supported by expert agtech and deeptech investors to drive this technology forward and open up new treatment options for farmers." says Liam Hescock, CEO and Co-Founder.

"We integrate advanced electronics and in-depth biological insights seamlessly to enable real-time weed targeting. This creates a very efficient weed control solution."

"Our investors understand the enormous opportunity we have to reduce the chemical intensity of farming, reduce input costs, and innovate to ensure we have options to address the growing global problem of herbicide resistant weeds."

Matthew Pryor from Tenacious Ventures said, "Azaneo is enabling the agri-food value chain to push toward lowering the input intensity of production systems with their technology. We can see the enormous economic and environmental benefits when scaled to major agricultural systems globally."

Azaneo is growing its team, with roles available in the engineering and robotic functions operating out of Sydney, Australia.

About Azaneo

Azaneo develops lightning-fast electric weeding technology - using only electrons - to unlock herbicide-free farming. Azaneo is on a mission to electrify agriculture and reduce the chemical intensity of farming globally. Our technology will enable farmers to control all weed species without waiting for the perfect weather conditions.

For more information, please visit our website at www.azaneo.au

About Tenacious Ventures

Tenacious Ventures is a thesis-led venture firm focused on unlocking impact & returns at the intersection of food system transformation & climate solutions. Tenacious was established in 2019 as Australia’s first and only dedicated agrifood tech venture capital firm, with a mission to help agriculture transition to a carbon-neutral and climate change resilient future. With a primary focus on Australian-originated opportunities, Tenacious identifies and supports innovators with scalable, defensible, and globally relevant solutions for sustainable, resilient, and profitable agriculture.

For more information, please visit our website at https://tenacious.ventures/

About IP Group

IP Group accelerates the impact of science for a better future, developing and supporting some of the world’s most exciting businesses in deeptech, life sciences and cleantech (led by Kiko Ventures). Our specialist investment team combines sector expertise with an international approach. In Australia and New Zealand, IP Group works in close partnership with the Go8 Universities and the University of Auckland to identify ground-breaking technologies rooted in hard science, which have the most promising commercial potential. We have a strong track record of success, having backed high-profile companies including Oxford Nanopore Technologies plc, First Light Fusion, Hysata, and Oxbotica. IP Group is listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange under the code IPO.

For more information, please visit our website at www.ipgroupanz.com.

About AgFunder

AgFunder was founded in 2013 on the belief that innovation and targeted investment are the most powerful tools to bring about rapid and positive change in the global food and agriculture system. Its media platform, AgFunderNews, has established itself as the industry site of record, and go-to knowledge source with over two million yearly site visits and nearly 100,000 subscribers. Today, AgFunder is one of the most active early-stage agri-food technology investors with a portfolio of more than 70 companies across its funds. AgFunder Asia was established in Singapore in 2019 to help develop the agrifood technology ecosystem in the wider Asia Pacific region, including the establishment of AgFunderNews Asia and GROW Accelerator.

For more information about AgFunder, please visit https://agfunder.com/