(Yicai Global) Jan. 10 -- Online agriculture service platform 'Farm Friend' has received USD10 million in Pre-B round financing. It will use the new funds for market education and training, online media outlet Pedaily.cn reported. The funding comes at a time when agricultural sector seeks innovative ways to improve production techniques.

Yi Capital led this round of funding. Yunqi Partners, Shunwei Capital, GGV Capital, Gobi Partners and ZhenFund partook in the financing. Farm Friend also secured USD3 million in Pre-A round funding from GGV Capital and Shunwei Capital in October 2016 and USD7.6 million in series-A round of financing from Gobi Partners and Yunqi Partners last June.

Domestic flight control operation areas have expanded from 5 million mu (3,333-square kilometer) two years ago to 20 million mu in 2017 in China's agricultural sector, increasing by a factor of four, among which, Farm Friend has a market share of 40 percent despite it was founded in 2016. At the same time, the industry has gradually moved towards standardization from underdeveloped conditions.

In the early stage, Farm Friend started as unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV, plant protection service trading platform to connect farmers and flight control teams, so farmers did not need to buy UAV and other equipment, and instead, they just paid directly for specialized services. In addition to direct customers from farms and cooperatives, Farm Friend also receives orders from the government.

The agriculture service platform offering UAV flight control has met farmers' highly rigid demand and it is a rare opportunity for the platform with innovation and great potential in agriculture, believes Wang Tianyang, a current partner of Yi Capital.