Jordanian agri-tech startup Nestrom has secured undisclosed amounts of seed funding from 500 Startups, Wamda Capital, Propeller Inc, Agrimatco, and several other angel investors.

The funding will be used for product development and penetrating new markets in the region, said Nestrom cofounder Yousef Wadi. “Our vision is to start knocking on the doors of the major agricultural players in the region, to provide as much value as we can.”

Established in 2017, Nestrom creates farm management systems that help managers digitally monitor their workforce. “We’re trying to replicate the game FarmVille by connecting the farm to your office. So all the operations are now accessible through your laptop,” Wadi said.

The company, which currently has three regional clients, works on three main verticals: workforce management whereby the manager can monitor where each person is located in the farm and what they are doing; the farm management system that tracks seeds growth to help the farms figure out how much each field contributes to their revenue; and precision automation, which is automating all the farm operations in-house through automated systems and artificial intelligence.

“Over the years I’ve met so many people that work in farms and it was very interesting to see how all verticals are accelerating with technology but agriculture was always left behind,” said Wadi. “Most of the experience I’ve built over the years was somehow related to agriculture directly or indirectly, so it felt very natural that I thought of pushing out a proper solution that could solve these people’s problems.”

He said his company has successfully created prototypes for automated greenhouse and irrigation systems.

Wadi is a serial entrepreneur who previously cofounded the renowned Jordanian weather startup, Arabia Weather, where he acted as the chief product officer then the chief technology officer for weather tech specifically. Earlier, he also established a company called Oasis that was funded by Bill Gates and that specialized in remote censor networks to combat desertification.