Interview: Aerobotics CEO James Paterson

Loading player...
In this episode of the podcast, Duncan McLeod interviews James Paterson, co-founder and CEO of Aerobotics, a Cape Town-based company that pairs drone and satellite imagery with artificial intelligence to help farmers improve their yields.
Focused specifically on tree crops, Aerobotics can analyse individual trees, measure their health and whether anything is affecting them, advising farmers about potential problems and how to fix them.
The business, which enjoys the backing of Nedbank, has plans to expand beyond South Africa and has already set up teams in the US states of Florida and California.
In the podcast, Paterson explains how the company got its start, how the technology works and how it goes to market.
Founded by Paterson and his business partner Benji Meltzer (who serves as chief technology officer), Aerobotics' software, Aeroview, allows tree-crop farmers to identify early-stage problems in their orchards. Used in conjunction with the Aerobotics’ Aeroview Scout App on their smartphone, farmers are able to locate problem areas on a tree-by-tree basis.
Don't miss the interview.
16 Oct 2018 English South Africa Technology · Business

Other recent episodes

TCS | The Cape Town firm quietly connecting Eskom, Pep and 6 000 ATMs

Réan van Niekerk Metacom has spent 25 years designing its own routers and running private networks for some of Africa's biggest retailers, without a cent of venture capital. In this episode of the TechCentral Show, founder Réan van Niekerk tells Fanie van Rooyen how the Cape Town company came to…
23 Oct 36 min

TCS | Frogfoot sees bigger fibre deals coming

Frogfoot plans to keep buying smaller fibre network operators in South Africa’s suburbs as the market consolidates, but CEO Shane Chorley stopped short of ruling out a sale of the business. “I’d be ignorant to say that we would ignore any offer,” Chorley said on the latest episode of the…
8 Oct 40 min

Meet the CIO | Vodacom’s Mohamed Sami on the agentic future

Mohamed Sami, group chief information officer at Vodacom, says autonomous AI agents that resolve customer problems without handing them to a human are the next big shift in customer experience – and that it is closer than many think. Speaking on TechCentral’s Meet the CIO podcast series, brought to you…
5 Oct 44 min