Tevel

Tevel manufactures versatile, agile, and sophisticated robots to transform orchard agriculture. The company’s flying robots are small, agile, and cost-effective, and harvest fruit such as apples, nectarines, peaches, and pears. The drones launch from a base station to which they’re tethered, select only the ripe fruit from the tree, and carefully lower it for collection. Leveraging AI, computer vision, and machine learning, the robots can chart their routes in the orchard, assess a fruit’s ripeness, determine the best angle for access, and choose the optimal direction—clockwise or counterclockwise—for picking. As they harvest, they collect data on the weight and size of each fruit, color grading, disease detection, and total yield; the system then geostamps and timestamps the picking operation. The robots are controlled via a mobile app that analyzes collected data and offers growers insights into everything from pesticide effectiveness to irrigation optimization.

The company provides a number of pricing and operating options for its robots, including direct purchase, “picking-as-a-service” (with prices based on the number of robots required), and technology partnerships with local providers—for example, service providers that operate the equipment on behalf of the farmer. Under the latter two operating models, farmers can access the harvesting equipment without upfront capital investment. In the partnership model, revenue is shared between Tevel and the service provider, who gets paid per ton of fruit picked.

“Fruit that’s harvested even two weeks late has lost 80% of its value,” says Tevel CEO Yaniv Maor. “But robots can work 24/7 during the harvest. We offer a range of pricing models that include hardware sales and software fees with different ratios. The as-a-service model is offered in collaboration with a service provider and allows even the smallest farmers to access the hardware and data they need to address food shortages and stay competitive.”