Lawrenceville-based Bloomfield Robotics announced that it has been acquired by Kubota Corporation, an Osaka-headquarterd global tractor manufacturer. Kubota previously led a $4.4 million funding round into the company.
The company, which will continue to be based in Pittsburgh, spun out of research from Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute. The company monitors the health of crops with robotics, artificial intelligence and software, three categories that CEO Mark DeSantis said the Pittsburgh region excels at.
"For Pittsburgh to claim that it's contributed to feeding the world through robotics is a big deal," DeSantis said. "It also brings in an incredible partner that doesn't really have a history in Pittsburgh, which is Kubota Corporation, which is one of the largest tractor manufacturers in the world. ... Their thinking was that we ticked a lot of boxes and an important on was really being a part of what's going on here in Pittsburgh in robotics and artificial intelligence. They made that explicit to us that that was one of the reasons that they found us so appealing."
Initially, the company was focused on monitoring grapes, with operations in wine producing areas like California and France. Operations have expanded to monitor blueberries and raspberries, and the company's global reach now includes Mexico, Chile and Peru.
Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The acquisition was made through Kubota subsidiary Kubota North America Corporation.
"Combining AI-driven technology with our legacy quality product will enable Kubota to solve real issues facing agriculture," Kubota North America CTO Brett McMickell said in a prepared statement.
DeSantis teased that "you can imagine a day when our technology is actually embedded in vehicles."
"Plant and camera have to come together, and they come together by hitching rides on vehicles," DeSantis said. "Now we have one of the largest vehicle producers in the world and now we can hitch a ride on all the vehicles that are produced."
