We are in an age when our imagination about what technology can do is starting to have no limits. While one thinks of space travel or breakthrough medical treatments, innovation is also transforming how food reaches our tables—in ways that most of us would not have imagined. A recently funded agriculture technology startup has built robotic technology that can harvest strawberries directly from their in-soil beds.
Advanced Farm Technologies, Inc., now has over $70 million in customer commitments for use of its TX Strawberry Harvester. The three plus year old startup just announced that its breakthrough technology will also be used to harvest apples.
The agriculture technology startup is moving through major milestones at a lightning clip. President and CFO Kyle Cobb attributes this to the personal and professional backgrounds of the founding team. Cobb, who is the only non-technology team member, went to high school with co-founder, Chairman and CEO Marc Grossman, who studied at CalTech with co-founders, CTO Cedric Jeanty and Head of Software Carl Allendorph.
“We have known each other for over twenty years that adds to our startup chemistry,” said Cobb. “Plus, three of our founders have engineering and tech backgrounds, with decades of experience in building things. Our company has a building ethos of taking on unsolved problems and then we work very hard together to find solutions that has moved us forward very quickly.”
In addition to his founding team and its early investors, Cobb acknowledges the important role that growers have had in the development and deployment of their technology into the fields.
“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,” said Cobb.
With important input and feedback from the growers, Advanced Farm Technologies innovatively developed new farm equipment that uses computer vision and machine learning. Their robotic machines with highly sophisticated management software automatically senses and picks red ripe strawberries using a gentle, food-grade gripper technology.
The growers gain a major benefit from the automation that the TX Strawberry Harvester provides, enabling them to work their fields autonomously up to 24 hours a day. Adoption also helps them with labor supply challenges that impact food production. The technology, designed to work alongside manual harvest crews, is made of multiple, rugged robots built to withstand the rigors of outdoor, in-soil conditions.
Catapult Ventures led the recently closed Series B round with Series A investors Kubota Corporation, Yamaha Motor Corporation, and Impact Ventures also participating. Latest funds will be used for a broad range of expansion initiatives, building on Advanced Farm’s quickly attained achievements that have caught the eye of the agriculture industry.
“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 of 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.”
Strawberry growers who were early adopters of the technology include GoodFarms, The Oppenheimer Group (Oppy), and Naturipe. Tens of thousands of pounds of fresh fruit from their farms were successfully brought to market. GoodFarms Partner Dave Murray provides a testimonial about the two companies working together.
“We 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. 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.”
Having successfully tackled strawberries and now moving onto apples, the agriculture technology startup foresees their innovative technology being used for other fruits, as well as being a solutions provider for crop growers around the world. They foresee developing more innovations that will bring efficiencies to the global food supply chain that food companies will greatly value.
Cobb sums up their future, stating, “We are building a 21st century farm equipment company that is centered-around automation.”
