September 28, 2021

photo credit: Advanced Farm

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

Agricultural robotic tech startup Advanced Farm Technologies (Advanced Farm) has closed on a $25 million Series B round led by Catapult Ventures, with all of the company’s Series A investors: Kubota Corporation, Yamaha Motors Corporation, and Impact Ventures returning to take part in its Series B. 

“It is gratifying to have the ongoing support and commitment from our early investors in this funding round. It reflects all of our team’s hard work to develop and bring our TX Strawberry Harvester to the market,” said Kyle Cobb, president, and co-founder, Advanced Farm Technologies.

In 2019 Advanced Farm became the first company in the U.S. to commercialize robotic strawberry harvesting through its innovative T-6 platform intentionally created for soil-planted beds.

Designed to operate alongside manual harvesting crews, the Advanced Farm TX Robotic Strawberry Harvester automatically senses and picks red, ripe fruit from beds using gentle, food-grade gripper technology.

The unit consists of multiple, rugged robots able to withstand the conditions and challenges of in-soil agriculture that use sophisticated computer vision and machine learning technology to navigate fields and harvest fruit autonomously up to 24 hours per day. 

The TX Robotic Strawberry Harvester fleet has been deployed across fields in the major strawberry growing centers of California, assisting the world’s leading producers, including GoodFarms, The Oppenheimer Group, and Naturipe, to bring tons of pounds of fruit to market.

With the capital from this round, Advanced Farm plans to not only pursue growth in strawberry harvesting, but extend its technology range beyond strawberries into apple production.

“The Advanced Farm team demonstrated tremendous discipline with the earlier fundraising, making $10 million go a very long way in developing and commercializing its technology quickly and creating the foundation needed to go to market,” said Rouz Jazayeri, managing partner, Catapult Ventures. “With this latest investment round, the company can scale its team and robotic technology, with an eye toward expanding market share and adapting its technology for new crops, to deliver on the promise of automated harvesting for 21st-century farming.”

“Our success is also a testament to our grower partners in strawberries and apples who work with us to find creative ways to introduce automation into their ranches today, while giving us the feedback we need to rapidly iterate and improve the tech,” added Cobb.

Currently, the company has $70 million in customer commitments, and is working to innovate its technology through collaborative partnerships, including one with U.C. Davis breeding program to develop a full spectrum of automated solutions from picking to sorting, and packing.

“We are fortunate to have the opportunity to work with the best in our industry and continue to be impressed by the practical, hands-on approach of Advanced Farm – a proven team that is building upon their past success to bring meaningful automation solutions to farming,” said Dave Murray, partner, GoodFarms. “Automating our harvest with the Advanced Farm TX Robotic Strawberry Harvester helps us serve our customers, allowing us to better support our farmworkers, and expand operations to meet the consumer demand for high quality, affordable fresh fruit.”

– Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Oilseed & Grain News. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.