November 29, 2022

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

Since its beginning,  Verdant Robotic’s mission has been multi-pronged: to address one of the most serious looming threats to farmers – a shortage of labor – and to provide robotic solutions that enable more growers to access regenerative and precision practices that support soil health, water conservation, carbon sequestration, and nutrient-dense crops. 

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, that employ 88 percent of the crop workers in the U.S.

However, due to the strenuous nature of the labor itself, tighter regulations, and rising wages, 56 percent of California’s farmers reported being unable to hire the required number of workers needed over the last five years. This issue was only compounded beginning in 2020 due to COVID-19, and still there is a lack of commercially available options. 

Verdant’s commercial Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS) is the only ag robot on the U.S. market that can simultaneously weed, fertilize, and treat plants for pests and diseases. Its multi-crop platform is ushering in high-fidelity farming, unlocking additional value for growers through applications spanning thinning, protectant and nutrient delivery, and laser application at the millimeter level, making it a high-demand platform current servicing specialty crops across thousands of acres, with tens of thousands more pending. 

The company’s combination of multi-action automation, deep-learning, machine vision, and sub-millimeter accuracy has gained the attention of leading agtech investors. This is evident in its recent closing of  one of the largest funding rounds in the ag robotics space – Cleveland Avenue, founded by former McDonald’s CEO Don Thompson, has led a $46.5 million Series A for the company that was joined by DCVC Bio, Future Ventures, SeaX Ventures along with all existing investors, Autotech Ventures, Cavallo Ventures, and AgFunder.

“Increasingly, consumers are demanding food that meets the trifecta of good for me, for my community and for the planet,” said Don Thompson, founder and CEO, Cleveland Avenue. “Verdant offers next-level precision that growers – and our global food supply – need to meet these demands, not only in the next 20 years but in the next five.”

The company explained that it “indexes the farm the way Google indexes the internet”, tracking each plant over space and time by making a digital twin of a farm, allowing managers to make decisions by the centimeter rather than by the field.

The deep need for precision, digital, and smart agricultural practices to meet growing food demand is reflected in the estimation that the global agriculture autonomous robot market will grow at a CAGR of 19 percent from 2022-2027, at which point it is expected to reach a value of $10.5 billion. 

“Verdant’s ultra-precision spraying platform is here today — adding new value while doing more with less,” said Gabe Sibley, PhD, co-founder and CEO, Verdant Robotics.”Thanks to the ongoing support from our investors, growers can thrive as we deploy this transformative technology together.

With the capital from this round, Verdant stated that it will now be able to rapidly scale its fleet, while also developing next-generation products that will have the effect of significantly increasing the efficiency of RaaS. 

“At Verdant,” said Sibley, “we believe that an outsized opportunity requires an oversized effort that only robotics can deliver for agriculture.”

~ 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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