When Valeria Kogan began her PhD in bioinformatics in 2017, she envisioned a career focused on mathematics, medicine, or biology. However, after the AI boom of the late 2010s, she found herself drawn into an unexpected field: agriculture. Kogan’s transition into the agricultural tech sector came through an intriguing opportunity—a tomato grower seeking someone with AI expertise to monitor plant health using advanced technology. This intersection of AI and agriculture soon led Kogan to launch Fermata, a Tel Aviv-based startup, in 2020.
Fermata combines computer vision and artificial intelligence to monitor and diagnose plant health in greenhouse environments. Its technology uses standard, off-the-shelf cameras to take pictures of crops twice daily. The AI-powered system then analyzes these images, identifying signs of disease or pest infestations and alerting farmers via an app. For Kogan, her bioinformatics background and understanding of data-driven health diagnostics made the transition into plant health monitoring a natural fit.
While many startups have struggled to gain traction with AI in agriculture, Fermata has found success by focusing on genuine customer needs and adapting its approach accordingly. Kogan acknowledges that early on, her team made mistakes, including developing a robot that wasn’t needed by farmers. “We built things before talking to anybody, and it still sits in my dad’s garage,” she laughs. However, they quickly pivoted and started engaging with greenhouse operators to better understand their challenges. Instead of pushing unnecessary technology, Fermata shifted focus to creating an AI system that could directly solve real-world problems in plant health management.
A key part of Fermata’s success has been its hands-on approach to AI model training. While many AI companies outsource their data labeling, Fermata has kept this process in-house, which Kogan credits for the company’s accuracy. Initially relying on publicly available data, Fermata now uses its own customer data to continuously improve its AI model, alongside its dedicated research center where they deliberately infect plants with various diseases to enhance the system’s diagnostic capabilities.
Kogan humorously admits that having customers with major plant health issues is a boon for their research. “We love customers who have a lot of problems because it brings us a lot of data, especially if they have some deadly diseases,” she says. “It’s bad news for them, but for us, it’s amazing news.”
Fermata’s initial strategy in 2020 involved partnering with companies already selling to farms, but this approach didn’t yield much traction. However, as AI began gaining momentum in 2022, Fermata’s fortunes changed. The company started to work directly with farms and expanded its partnerships with large agricultural enterprises like Bayer and Syngenta. Although Fermata has yet to share specific growth metrics, the company has deployed more than 100 cameras and recently raised a $10 million Series A round, entirely from Raw Ventures, a European venture capital firm.
Kogan explained that they didn’t feel the need to bring in more investors for this round, preferring to maintain a leaner cap table. The funds from the Series A will help scale Fermata’s operations and enable the company to hit its goal of profitability by 2026. Remarkably, Fermata has managed to grow primarily through inbound interest—without a dedicated sales team—though Kogan mentioned they are now looking to expand their sales operations as they continue to grow.
Currently, Fermata works exclusively with greenhouse-grown tomatoes, but Kogan and her team are actively working on expanding into new crops and growing their partnerships within the agriculture sector. With AI-driven monitoring becoming more mainstream and effective, Fermata is well-positioned to lead the charge in transforming agricultural practices by making plant health diagnostics faster, more accurate, and more accessible. As the company looks to scale its operations, its innovative approach promises to have a lasting impact on the agricultural industry and beyond.
By Impact Lab