Sora raises $2.5 million additional seed to battle malaria in Africa with AI-powered drones

Sora Technology, a startup using drones and artificial intelligence to fight infectious diseases, has raised an additional $2.5 million in a second close of its late seed round to expand its malaria elimination efforts across Africa.

The new funding brings the company’s total capital raised to about US$7.3 million, following a $4.8 million late seed round announced in March 2025.

TechPoint reports that the latest round attracted three new investors such as Daiwa House Group Investment Limited Partnership, Central Japan Innovative Research Fund I, and UNERI Capital Fund Series I, joining existing backers such as Nissay Capital and SMBC Venture Capital.

Sora’s work was centred on malaria, a disease that affects more than 200 million people every year and causes nearly 600,000 deaths globally, with the vast majority occurring in Africa.

Through its flagship initiative, SORA Malaria Control, the company combines satellite data, drones, and AI models to predict outbreaks, analyse environments, and deploy targeted vector control interventions.

The company uses AI to find and map mosquito breeding sites while also ranking which ones pose the highest risk.

Interestingly, Sora is a Japanese company launched in 2018; however, its flagship project, SORA Malaria Control, is focused on Africa, where it is already active in more than 10 countries, including Ghana, Sierra Leone, Benin, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Senegal, Kenya, and Mozambique.

According to Chief Executive Officer and founder Yosuke Kaneko, the company is “working to address critical healthcare infrastructure challenges – primarily across Africa .”

The fresh capital would be used to advance Sora’s AI-powered disease prediction tools, team expansion, and strengthen partnerships with governments and international health institutions.

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