A group of maize farmers stands huddled around an agronomist and his computer on the side of an irrigation pivot in central South Africa. The agronomist has just flown over the pivot with a hybrid UAV that takes off and lands using propellers yet maintains distance and speed for scanning vast hectares of land through the use of its fixed wings.

I can vividly remember walking through the aisles of ag shows a couple years ago and seemingly stopping every few booths to grab a business card and a brief conversation with an ambitious entrepreneur looking to stake a claim in the ag tech industry.

A report by AgFunder.com reveals that investment in agriculture technology startups reached $3.23 billion in 2016, a 30% year-over-year decline. But it was a tale of two halves as the number of deals closed increased 10% to 580 due to an uptick in seed stage activity.

AgFunder reported a record $4.6 billion of investment into the agriculture technologies sector for 2015, almost double the $2.36 billion invested in 2014, and outpacing growth in the broader venture capital market.

AgDNA has developed the world’s first automated data processing and analytics platform to deliver agronomic insights from in-field farm machinery directly to grower’s smartphones and tablets.