Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 28): Khazanah Nasional Bhd's wholly-owned unit Malaysian Technology Development Corp Bhd (MTDC) said its investment in drone start-up Poladrone Solutions Sdn Bhd will drive the adoption of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) in the agriculture sector.

theedgemarkets.com reported on Tuesday, citing the portal TechCrunch, that MTDC had invested in Poladrone.

Poladrone announced that it has received a US$4.29 million seed round led by Wavemaker Partners — the largest seed round ever raised in Malaysia. MTDC is one of the participants that invested in Poladrone alongside ZB Capital Ltd and angel investors.

In an emailed response to theedgemarkets.com queries, MTDC said on Thursday: "Our investment in Poladrone will spur the adoption of the 4IR in the agriculture sector in line with the National 4IR Policy and the recently launched 12th Malaysia Plan.

"The technology offered by Poladrone would be able to reduce the reliance on foreign workers especially in the palm oil industry while at the same time helping increase the number of knowledge workers in the drone industry."

MTDC declined to disclose the amount it invested in Poladrone, which was founded in 2016 by Cheong Jin Xi.

The drone company now operates in Malaysia and Thailand and plans to expand into Indonesia, the world's largest oil palm producer.

Poladrone is based in Kuala Lumpur and aims at changing the way farms use pesticides with a combination of drones and automation and analytics software.

Cheong said the group is profitable but decided to seek funding after the Covid-19 pandemic, highlighting the positive impact the company's technology has had on farming communities by creating jobs and training opportunities.

In a Facebook post, Poladrone said that with this round of funding, the company aims to expand and scale its operations across the region, through the group's local service centres, to serve more customers and support local communities with drone technology.

MTDC was set up by the government in 1992 to promote the adoption of technologies by local companies in Malaysia via commercialisation activities of local inventions or acquisitions of foreign technologies. It has also been the key player in commercialisation and managing of government funds since the 7th Malaysia Plan.

Edited ByS Kanagaraju
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