Burro raised another $24 million from investors as it looks to grow revenue, hire additional employees and expand its fleet of agricultural robots.
The Philadelphia startup's Series B round was co-led by New York-based Catalyst Investors and Palo Alto-based Translink Capital and joined by existing investors S2G Ventures, Toyota Ventures, F-Prime Capital and the Cibus Capital LLP. The cash influx brings the company's total funding to more than $45 million, according to Burro CEO Charlie Anderson.
Burro's robots are autonomous vehicles that use artificial intelligence to reduce human labor on farms by performing tasks like transporting crops that can’t be picked or packed by machinery. Anderson equated them to the animated Disney character WALL-E in that they can learn to do tasks on their own over time and augment manual labor. The company currently has more than 300 robots, which is calls Burros, in use across four continents. Countries with active units include Peru, Colombia, Australia and New Zealand, in addition to the U.S.
Anderson said he hopes to add another 350 to 500 Burro systems in 2024 and wants Burros to have a presence in Europe by the end of the year. More than doubling the size of its fleet, combined with the monthly fees it charges for its existing robots, would allow the company to triple revenue, Anderson said.
To keep up with the growth, Anderson wants to add at least 20 to 25 employees in the coming year and source much of that talent from the Philadelphia region. Upping Burro's headcount from 45 currently to as many as 70 could push Burro to increase its space in the city. Anderson said the company is quickly outgrowing its current location, a 5,500-square-foot space on 7th and Willow streets. It also has an office in Visalia, California.
The fresh $24 million in funding gives the company 24 months of runway if it were not to do any more sales, according to Anderson, which puts the company in a strong position. While it continues to be a down market for fundraising, Anderson said Burro's "clear evidence of growth" eased the process, which began in August and closed in December.
"We're approaching a really, really cool place as a company," Anderson said. "We can build a great business."
The former farmer, who holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, founded the company in 2017 as Augean Robotics.
"It's no longer just a technology, it's a real product, it's sold all over the place," he said. "It's operating at quite a degree of quality and people are therefore paying a pretty good margin for it, which is starting to produce a long-term durable company."
Burros come with two different pricing plan options. Customers can pay a fee for the hardware, along with a recurring fee for the autonomy. Or, they can buy 48 months of Burro-as-a-service with a down payment and a fixed fee for 48 months, after which users own the hardware and pay a reduced fee for the autonomy. The Burro Platform, the standard model of the vehicle, costs $15,749 plus $209 per month for the autonomy. Or, buyers can put $2,000 down and pay $632 per month on the 48-month plan.
Burro is also launching the Burro Grande, which can carry 1,500 pounds and tow 5,000 pounds. That significantly expands capabilities from the Burro Platform, which can carry 500 pounds and tow 1,000 pounds. Anderson said the creation of the Burro Grande was in response to a "crescendo of requests" from existing customers. It also features an updated software system, can travel indoors and outdoors with Lidar detection and has upgraded autonomy elements that allow it to go to GPS denied settings.
Anderson doesn't just see opportunity for Burro's own growth, but he sees promise in a budding robotics scene in Philadelphia. He calls the city "one of the best places on the planet to build a robotics business today," pointing to the local talent pool and a small but strong core of robotics startups that also includes Fort Robotics, Exyn Technologies and Ghost Robotics.
