Degas is pleased to announce that it has entered into a capital and business partnership with Sojitz Corporation (Headquarters: Chiyoda, Tokyo, hereafter “Sojitz”). Through this partnership, Degas will accelerate the development of AI focusing on satellite imagery analysis (geospatial foundation model) and drive the digital transformation (DX) of agriculture in developing countries. Furthermore, Degas plans to expand the application of its geospatial foundation model into decarbonization and new business fields.
Degas provides innovative financing solutions to smallholder farmers in Africa, leveraging its proprietary technology platform. By using its in-house app and satellite imagery, Degas collects data on farms and farmland and utilizes its unique machine learning algorithms to assess farmers’ credit scores. To date, Degas has financed over 65,000 farmers and achieved an industry-leading repayment rate. In collaboration with these farmers, Degas is promoting sustainable farming practices such as minimum tillage and introducing cover crops. This initiative represents the largest-scale implementation of regenerative agriculture, which promotes soil restoration and carbon sequestration, in Africa - a practice gaining global attention as the most cost-effective method of carbon removal.
Recently, Degas has focused on developing a geospatial foundation model, an AI that specializes in satellite image analysis, and it currently boasts state-of-the-art capabilities in areas such as natural disaster detection and crop segmentation. The foundation model enables highly accurate analysis in a wide range of fields, including yield forecasting, disease detection and prediction, and soil composition and carbon measurement, while reducing the need for ground truth data, which are especially difficult to collect in developing countries, by approximately 90%.
Through this partnership, Sojitz will provide Degas with GPU infrastructure based on the business partnership agreement signed with Sakura Internet Inc. (hereafter “Sakura Internet”) in March 2024. Degas will leverage the highest-performance GPUs (H100) provided by Sakura Internet to accelerate the development of soil composition measurement and disease detection solutions, contributing to promoting DX in Sojitz’s agriculture businesses. Furthermore, starting with agriculture, Degas aims to create new solutions using the foundation model across Sojitz’s extensive business domains.
Company name: Degas Ltd.
Representative: Doga Makiura
HP: https://degasafrica.com/
Paid-in capital: JPY 382,558,216
Employees: 219
