January 9, 2024

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

Farmers – especially those growing labor-intensive specialty crops such as grapes, berries, and nursery crops –  are facing ever greater challenges throughout their production cycles. It is these farmers in particular, who are widely un-mechanized and employ 88 percent of the crop workers in the U.S., that are on the front lines of the ag labor shortage. 

However, due to the strenuous nature of the labor itself, tighter regulations, and rising wages, this workforce has declined by 40 percent over the past decade, driving growers to seek out technology-driven solutions such as automation and robotics. 

One solution that continues to gain investor support is from Burro, a Philadelphia-based autonomous mobility company that has successfully closed on a $24 million Series B co-led by Catalyst Investors and Translink Capital. Existing investors S2G Ventures, Toyota Ventures, F-Prime Capital, and Cibus Capital LLP also participated in the round. 

Founded in 2017 by Charlie Anderson, Burro is the first collaborative robotic platform to work safely and reliably outdoors alongside human workers. Its platform features unique robots that work as people/pallet scale autonomous ground vehicles for carrying, towing, patrolling, and mowing and do not require a centralized control or installation of complicated infrastructure – rather, they use computer vision and AI to learn “on the fly” to navigate autonomously “from A to B” while carrying various payloads.

“Robots have long been stuck in warehouses and factories, and few robotics companies have successfully scaled outdoors into industries like agriculture, nurseries, and construction, where trillions of dollars are spent annually on labor,” said Charlie Andersen, CEO, Burro.

Brian Rich, managing partner, Catalyst Investors, added, “What sets Burro apart among the robotics sector is the team’s brilliant vision for augmenting – not replacing – labor with machines that work safely and reliably outdoors alongside humans, exponentially increasing efficiency and production.”

Today, Burro has more than 300 robots working as harvest assist robots in nurseries and permanent crop operations in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and South America where they tow trailers autonomously, patrol depot yards, and serve as a platform and physical API for a growing list of technology partners. 

With more than 75,000 autonomous miles in paid commercial use and more than 300,000 hours in operations, Burro has continuously enhanced its reliability and scalability to position it for expansion into new regions and markets. 

It is already rapidly growing in the U.S. berry and grape farming and nursery industries with additional systems working at scale in Australia and New Zealand, and is on pace to tackle the $1.2 trillion U.S. outdoor labor market.

“The Burro approach is already proven and its ROI demonstrated for farms and nurseries, perfectly positioning them to become the dominant outdoor robotics company for various industries and uses,” said Brian Rich, managing partner with Catalyst Investors. 

This year, Burro explained that it plans to expand its commercial, product, and engineering teams, bring on more dealers, and launch new products in direct response to customer demand, beginning with its new product – Burro Grande. 

Expanding beyond human-scale, light-duty towing of less than a 500 pound payload, Burro Grande is a pallet-scale vehicle able to handle a 1,500 pound payload and tow 5,000 pounds. It also features Burro Operation System Software V 5.0 that includes indoor/outdoor Lidar-based localization for autonomous movement across indoor and outdoor operations. 

“We have built a world-class product based upon state-of-the-art autonomous AI technology, and with this funding, we will deliver solutions for real-world problems, distributed world-wide through our network of dealers,” said Andersen. “With the incredible teams at Catalyst Investors and Translink Capital, and their strong track records of growing businesses, we are well on our way.”

~ Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor in chief 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 Unconventional Ag. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.

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