Robotic strawberry harvester one step closer to market

First there are robotic tractors, robotic weeders and now, an autonomous strawberry harvester that just got one step closer to mass commercialisation, thanks to a successful Series B funding round.

The TX Robotic Strawberry Harvester was the brainchild of American tech startup, Advanced Farm Technologies, which first launched the harvester back in 2019 after realising that labour issues on farms are very real and serious not just in the United States but around the world.

Designed to work alongside manual harvest crews, the TX Robotic Strawberry Harvester is an unmanned ground vehicle that features image sensors and artificial intelligence that help it sense and pick red, ripe fruit from in-soil strawberry beds with gentle, food-grade gripper technology.

The purpose-built machine consists of multiple, rugged robots that are able to withstand the rigours of outdoor, in-soil conditions and capable of navigating fields and harvest fruit autonomously up to 24 hours a day.

Since its introduction just a couple of years ago, the harvester has been put to work at several major strawberry growing operations in the US and Canada including GoodFarms, The Oppenheimer Group (Oppy), and Naturipe to bring tens of thousands of pounds of fresh fruit to market.

Following a Series A funding round that raised $10 million, the Advanced Farm Technologies team recently completed another successful funding round that raised a whopping $25 million.

The Series B funding round was led by Catapult Ventures and included all Series A investors including Kubota Corporation, Yamaha Motor Corporation, and Impact Ventures.

Advanced Farm Technologies said it is now eyeing the apple market and plans to evolve the harvester to be able to pick apples as well.

“It is gratifying to have the ongoing support and commitment from our early investors in this funding round,” said Advanced Farm Technologies’ President and Co-founder, Kyle Cobb.  

“It reflects all of our team’s hard work to develop and bring our TX Strawberry Harvester to the market.

“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.”

“The Advanced Farm team demonstrated tremendous discipline with the earlier fundraising, making $10 million go a very long way in developing and commercialising its technology quickly and creating the foundation needed to go to market,” said new investor, Rouz Jazayeri 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.”

Yamaha and Kubota, both well-known Japanese technology and agricultural power houses with a keen interest in innovation, were attracted by the idea from the start and decided to continue supporting the technology through its journey.  

The corporations, through their innovation divisions, will utilise their respective technologies to guide Advanced Farm Technologies through its next steps.

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