With investment from agriculture-based Dutch venture fund Navus Venures, Ekobot has not only gained new capital – at the market rate – but also, and more importantly, a cornerstone investor to support the company going forward.
Ekobot: Ticker EKOBOT | Price: 6,50 SEK | Market Cap.: 28 MSEK | YTD price development: -46%
Ekobot has developed a farming robot that both removes weeds and collects crop data, enabling farmers to cut costs by up to 20%. Ekobot focuses on crops that are difficult/costly to grow in terms of weed control, and thus the segment of agriculture that benefits most economically from using robots. Organic farms in particular benefit from the robots for weed removal as they do not use pesticides, but conventional farms also benefit economically from the Ekobot robot for weed removal.
A strong financial partner
Navus Ventures has several investments in the agricultural sector and ESG, including drones for horticulture. In addition, Navus Ventures is a spin-off of Lely, an international agribusiness. With the investment, Ekobot thus gains an investor with a thorough understanding of the sector and an investor located in one of the company’s focus markets, the Netherlands.
Navus Ventures has obtained an 11% stake in Ekobot through the investment of SEK 2.4 million. The share price is SEK 5.0, representing a discount of 4.6% to the closing price on Friday and a premium of 58.7% to the VWAP (average share price) since 10 October.
Share price up 167% in 10 days
Ekobot’s share price has risen 167% to 6.50 since 14 October 2022, when the share price bottomed at 2.43. With a market capitalisation of SEK 28m, the price of Ekobot remains significantly below the SEK 52m value of the company when it was listed in March last year.
Price chart for Ekobot year to date vs. the Nordic growth exchanges (KPNGX index)
The investment case is strengthened
With the investment, the investment case in Ekobot has been strengthened as the company’s current and future financial position has been strengthened and thus the risk of a devaluing issue has been significantly reduced. The price triggers are, according to the investment case, still:
H2 2022: Further sales of robots (for delivery in 2023)
Q1 2023: Delivery of robots
Q1 2023: Sales of robots to Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands
2023: Resale to existing customers