Israel’s Beewise raises $50 million to save bees, and the global food chain
As pollinators vanish at alarming rates, the Israeli startup is betting on AI and robotics to do what traditional agriculture hasn’t: protect the species that feeds us all.
As global bee populations continue to collapse, one Israeli company is drawing renewed investor confidence, and growing international attention, for its AI-powered approach to solving the crisis at scale.
Beewise, a climate-tech startup founded in Israel, announced it has raised $50 million in Series D funding to expand its autonomous beehive technology. The round, which includes backing from Fortissimo Capital, Insight Partners, APG Asset Management, lool Ventures, Badiya Capital, and others, brings the company’s total funding to nearly $170 million. It’s a sizable bet on the promise of high-tech intervention in one of the most critical, yet underappreciated, environmental threats: the collapse of global pollinators.
According to the company, more than 62% of U.S. bee colonies died last year alone, a staggering figure that imperils not only biodiversity but also food production. Bees pollinate over a third of global crops and 75% of flowering plants. Their disappearance, driven by extreme weather, pesticides, disease, and agricultural monoculture, has become one of the most urgent, if often overlooked, climate-driven threats to the global food supply.
Beewise’s solution is part biotech, part robotics lab, and part AI software company. At the heart of its offering is the BeeHome, a solar-powered robotic hive that houses bee colonies while continuously monitoring and caring for them in real-time. Unlike traditional hives, which commercial beekeepers may inspect only every few weeks, often too late to prevent colony collapse, BeeHome units provide around-the-clock diagnostics and interventions, including remote treatment for pests, automated climate control, and adaptive health protocols.
The company says its system now supports more than 1,240 active BeeHomes across agricultural sites worldwide, pollinating over 300,000 acres annually for major food producers such as Agriland, Olam Food Ingredients, and Nuveen Natural Capital (part of TIAA Investments).
