Berlin.Industrial.Group. (B.I.G.) has taken a 24.9% share in the startup company Escarda Technologies with its headquarters in Bonn, Germany, thereby expanding their technology and shareholding portfolio.
The Spanish name Escarda (English: weeding) describes the purpose of the company. The engineer and founder Julio Pastrana is currently working on a process for fighting against unwanted plants in fields with the aid of innovative laser technology and artificial intelligence. A camera identifies the undesirable plants which are then precisely pinpointed and burned by a laser. It is an environmentally friendly and entirely chemical-free weed control method that is also suitable for larger agricultural farms – eliminating the need for time-consuming manual labour. Escarda is supported by the Faculty of Agriculture of Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn and the company can use the test plots and image database of the university.
With its innovative development approach, Escarda Technologies is a perfect match for the technology and shareholding portfolio of B.I.G. Among the subsidiaries of B.I.G. is Scansonic MI, a pioneer of laser-based welding and soldering processes and a world market leader in the field of laser-based systems for car body construction applications. Another subsidiary is Lumics, a leading company producing laser diode modules for medical applications.
"This new investment opens up a completely new field of activity: agriculture," explains Katrin Robeck, Executive Director of B.I.G. "For us, this is not only an exciting growth market. We are particularly interested in the ecological challenge." Escarda founder Julio Pastrana has high hopes for the technological collaboration: "With B.I.G., we have found a partner whose expertise enables us to not only optimise the further development of our innovation, but also to accelerate it considerably." The partners plan to launch the new technology for laser-based, pesticide-free weed control by 2021.
Link to the video: http://escarda.net/videos/EscardaVideo.mp4
Berlin.Industrial.Group. (B.I.G.) is a medium-sized group of industrial companies that are striving for, or have already achieved, market leadership in their respective niche fields. In Berlin and Göttingen, 320 employees produce diode lasers, laser processing optics, quality assurance systems, optical measuring instruments, turbine seals and 3D metal printing machines. In 2019, the group expects a consolidated annual turnover of 49.5 million euros. 16% of the turnover are invested in R&D projects. Learn more at https://berlin.industrial.group/
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