Yamaha Motor Invests in Agricultural Startup Nileworks Inc. - Aiming to strengthen the foundation of the drone business through the incorporation and joint development of automation technologies -

IWATA, January 23, 2023 - Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. (Tokyo: 7272) is pleased to announce that it has invested in Nileworks Inc. (hereinafter referred to as NW) by agreeing to underwrite a third-party allotment of new shares in the company. NW is a start-up company that provides integrated solutions ranging from the development of fully automated agricultural drones to cloud data services. Through this investment, Yamaha Motor aims to build a foundation for its drone business by incorporating automatic flight and digital agriculture technologies, thereby strengthening its development capabilities, and in the future, expanding its business beyond the agricultural field.

NW was founded in 2015 based on the desire to help with challenges facing agriculture using its technology. As the drones provided by NW do not require special piloting skills, spraying can be carried accurately out by almost anyone. In addition, part of the company's strength includes accurate automated flight and digital agriculture, including real-time growth monitoring through sensing data collected during spraying and linking to field maps. By the end of 2020, other companies including Sumitomo Corporation had become major shareholders, providing multifaceted support for NW's activities.

In June 2021, the High-Spec Drone Development Consortium, which consists of nine domestic organizations led by Yamaha Motor, was commissioned by the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) to develop precision agriculture technologies and agricultural drone in order to enhance international competitiveness under the project "Development of High-Spec Drones for Safe and Secure Agriculture and their Application Technologies." As a member of the consortium, NW is also engaged in the joint development
of an automated agricultural drone which is targeted to be launched in July 2023.

Yamaha Motor believes that closer collaboration with NW will improve Japanese drone and smart agriculture technologies, as well as lead to their earlier introduction to the public space. In agriculture and other fields, the Company will continue working to address societal issues and aid in achieving sustainable growth.