SORA Technology is a Japanese startup founded in 2020 and headquartered in Nagoya, Japan. The company combines drones, satellites, and artificial intelligence to deliver an integrated One Health and Climate Resilience Platform across four sectors: health, agriculture, mining, and climate intelligence. Its mission is to “transform lives from the sky.”
SORA Technology was founded by Yosuke Kaneko, who serves as CEO. His inspiration came from firsthand experience managing drone operations in Africa at a prior company, where he witnessed both the severity of healthcare access challenges and the untapped potential of aerial technology to address them. What began as a pharmaceutical delivery concept quickly evolved into a broader platform for public health innovation, beginning with malaria control.
SORA Technology is headquartered in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan. Field operations are active across Africa and Asia-Pacific, with a presence in 20+ countries.
SORA Technology is in its late seed stage. In 2025, it raised approximately JPY 400 million across two closes of a late seed round, with investors including Nissay Capital, SMBC Venture Capital, DRONE FUND, Rheos Capital Partners, Daiwa House Group, and Central Japan Innovative Research Fund, among others. The company is backed by prominent institutional and strategic investors aligned with its global health mission.
SORA operates three categories of drone. Fixed-wing drones, developed in-house, enable rapid high-resolution imaging across large landscapes for breeding site detection; lower-cost 3D-printed versions are also in development for training purposes. Multi-copter drones combined with AI produce detailed digital maps for terrain and waterlogging analysis — a peer-reviewed field evaluation in Ghana found drone mapping identified over 3.5 times more breeding sites than manual scouting at approximately half the labour cost. For spraying operations, SORA serves as Africa distribution partner for Exedy’s CT Series drones, manufactured in Japan, with a standard 2–3 day training package included.
Larval Source Management targets mosquito larvae at breeding sites before they mature into disease-carrying adults. Unlike bed nets or indoor spraying, it works against both indoor and outdoor biting mosquitoes and sidesteps growing insecticide resistance. The Global Fund’s GC8 guidance recognizes it as a core intervention, particularly for An. stephensi.
Only 30 to 40% of water bodies actually contain larvae, but without a way to identify which ones, spray teams treat everything, wasting larvicide and time. Manual surveys are slow (up to 295 minutes per waterbody in field settings), miss sites in dense or flooded terrain, and cannot scale to the coverage needed for impact.
SORA’s drone-and-AI platform maps breeding sites rapidly, classifies only the high-risk water bodies, and routes spray teams precisely where treatment is needed. Field evidence from the 2024 to 2025 JICA pilot in Ghana:
SORA’s model is distinguished by its end-to-end integration of aerial data collection, AI analysis, and precision intervention – applied to public health rather than logistics alone. Unlike point-to-point medical delivery platforms, SORA’s scope encompasses disease surveillance, mosquito control, agricultural support, environmental monitoring, and pharmaceutical delivery. The company also takes an active role in regulatory development and local capacity-building in the countries where it operates. SORA is also uniquely positioned at the agriculture-health nexus: the same platform used for malaria control is used to analyse paddy field drainage and waterlogging risk – because standing water in rice cultivation is also prime mosquito habitat.
Both. SORA offers drone-based services – including SORA Malaria Control, agricultural spray operations, and pharmaceutical delivery – as well as hardware sales. The company distributes the Exedy/Baibars CT Series agricultural spray drone across Africa, developed to industrial-grade Japanese standards and designed for durability in tropical field conditions.
SORA’s precision-based approach reduces unnecessary pesticide use by concentrating interventions on verified high-risk sites rather than blanket-spraying entire areas. This substantially lowers chemical load on ecosystems. The company is also committed to sustainability more broadly, including solar-powered aviation development, carbon credit initiatives, and low-impact water resource monitoring via drones. SORA’s work directly supports SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), and SDG 13 (Climate Action).
Malaria remains one of the world’s most deadly yet preventable diseases. In 2024, it killed 600,000+ people and caused 282 million cases globally – up from 273 million in 2022. Cases are rising, not falling. 95% of malaria deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa. Drug resistance has been confirmed in 8+ African countries, and global funding for malaria stands at $3.9 billion against a $9.3 billion target – a 58% shortfall. Climate change is expanding mosquito habitats into new geographies, making innovative approaches such as SORA’s more urgent than ever. (Source: WHO, 2024.)
SORA’s platform detects up to 62 times more water area than conventional manual methods. Habitat mapping is over 90% faster. In the Ghana JICA pilot (2024–2025), districts using SORA achieved approximately 60% reduction in larvicide used by treating only AI-identified high-risk sites – even while detecting a greater number of waterbodies overall. SORA’s technology has been validated by JICA and adopted as a WHO-recognised methodology with Unitaid support.
Yes. SORA works in close collaboration with national health ministries and local government bodies in its operating countries to establish regulatory frameworks and implement disease control programs. At the international level, SORA has engaged with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; Unitaid; JICA; UNICEF; RBM Partnership to End Malaria; the WHO; and Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.
SORA adapts its proven malaria platform to detect and control dengue, Zika, and chikungunya. Drones survey open-area Aedes breeding sites – drainage structures, water tanks, and discarded tyres – while community teams cover containers not visible from above. With 7.6 million dengue cases recorded across 90 countries in 2022 and 50% of the world’s population at risk (WHO), the platform offers scalable surveillance and geospatial risk mapping for governments and public health programmes. Field-tested in Asia-Pacific.
The SORA Agri Intelligence Room delivers soil and crop health assessment – combining remote sensing, ground sensors, and AI to provide evidence-based intelligence on soil health, plant stress, and yield forecasting – alongside precision spray drones for targeted delivery of fertilisers, pesticides, and biostimulants. It supports EUDR compliance mapping and has been applied to cacao, paddy, and pineapple farming in Ghana. Because rice paddy cultivation creates standing water that also functions as mosquito habitat, SORA is uniquely positioned to deliver integrated agriculture and health intelligence from a single platform.
In the mining sector, SORA complements traditional surveying, mapping, and geospatial monitoring by offering a broader Mining Intelligence Room that integrates periodic aerial and satellite observations with AI‑driven operational insights, environmental and climate‑risk analytics, ESG and traceability tools, and workforce health & safety monitoring. This expanded approach enables mining operators not only to understand their terrain and infrastructure, but also to anticipate operational disruptions, monitor environmental and community impacts, strengthen compliance, and support long‑term social license to operate through transparent, data‑driven decision‑making.
Climate intelligence is embedded across all of SORA’s solutions rather than offered as a standalone product. The SORA Health Intelligence Room integrates satellite data, hydrological modelling, and climate projections to predict flood-driven disease risks – achieving 69% accuracy in 2024 flood hotspot prediction in Nairobi, validated against government ground-truth data. For longer-term planning, SORA’s climate scenario modelling uses SSP/CMIP inputs to project infectious disease risks at national, regional, and community level, informing adaptation planning and TCFD/ISSB disclosure across health, agriculture, and mining applications.
SORA actively seeks partnerships with national governments and ministries of health for malaria program integration; international health organizations and NGOs (especially those focused on infectious diseases, climate adaptation, and global health equity); private sector partners in drone manufacturing, agriculture, mining, and logistics; research institutions for co-development and validation; and impact investors aligned with the company’s mission.
Organizations interested in partnering on malaria control, agricultural drone services, or medical delivery programs are encouraged to reach out through SORA’s website (sora-technology.com). SORA has established workflows for working with local governments and community health programs and is experienced in navigating regulatory environments in emerging markets.
Yes. SORA has direct experience developing drone regulations from the ground up in countries where no drone frameworks existed. The company offers regulatory design and licensing support as a distinct service area, working with governments to build the legal and operational infrastructure needed for safe and effective drone deployment.
SORA Technology is a for-profit startup, but its work aligns closely with public health and development goals supported by philanthropic and grant-making bodies. The company has received support through organizations such as JICA, and its engagement with the Global Fund and Unitaid reflects its integration into global health financing ecosystems. Organizations interested in supporting SORA’s mission through program partnerships or catalytic funding are encouraged to reach out directly.
SORA’s work is directly tied to SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), and SDG 13 (Climate Action). The company has committed to four sustainability themes: Health (public health improvement through infectious disease control); Water (drone-enabled water resource management); CO2 (solar aviation development and carbon credits); and Infrastructure (air mobility as a new social infrastructure layer).
SORA envisions a future in which aerial systems — drones, satellites, and other air mobility platforms — are as foundational to social infrastructure as roads, power grids, and the internet. In this vision, the airspace is safely managed, data from the sky is universally accessible, and aerial logistics enable equitable access to healthcare, food security, and emergency response regardless of geography.
SORA’s approach is grounded in local partnership and adaptive problem-solving. Rather than imposing a fixed model, the company engages with communities, local health authorities, and government officials to understand the most pressing needs and design interventions accordingly. SORA also invests in building local operational capacity – including staffing, regulatory infrastructure, and community health integration – to ensure its programs are sustainable beyond any single deployment.
Visit sora-technology.com/en for company information, news, and business overview. To inquire about partnerships, investment, or program collaboration, contact SORA Technology via the inquiry form on the website or at info@sora-tech.com. The team is based in Nagoya, Japan and operates field offices across Africa and Asia-Pacific.
