A Santa Clara startup developing autonomous robots for farming has raised millions in new capital amid a push for growth and ahead of its plans for another funding round later this year.
FarmWise Labs raised $10 million through convertible notes in a post-Series B round, CEO Tjarko Leifer told me.
The company also raised an additional $6 million a little over a year ago in a Series B extension, bringing that round to just over $51 million.
Overall, FarmWise has now raised around $84 million and the company is gearing up to raise even more through a Series C round later this year, Leifer said.
Its investors in previous rounds include Calibrate Ventures, Wilbur Ellis Holdings, GV, Felicis, Xplorer Capital, Alumni Ventures Group, Fall Line Capital, Middleland Capital, Taylor Farms, Playground Global, Thrive from SVG Ventures and Alchemist Accelerator.
FarmWise is developing autonomous robotics systems for farmers that utilize computer vision and artificial intelligence.
Their customers are looking for ways to "automate dirty, dangerous and certain manual labor tasks in agriculture," Leifer said, in addition to reducing the amount of pesticides used through more targeted applications.
Its flagship product is a weeding and cultivating machine called the Vulcan, which is designed to work with around 20 types of crops that can be planted in rows such as leafy greens and broccoli.
FarmWise has been focused on serving farmers in California and Arizona and is gearing up to expand into more regions across the U.S. It also plans on adding capabilities for more types of crops including tomatoes.
The farming industry has been dealing with a declining and stagnant labor force for decades. Hired farmworkers in the U.S. dropped by 51% between 1950 and 1990, according to the USDA, and their total numbers have stayed relatively flat at round 2 million people since 1985.
Many people are looking to automation as a way to support the industry by reducing manual labor, upskilling workers and increasing precision.
"Embodied AI stuff is not just these humanoid robots that are gonna be impacting our economy several years down the road," Leifer said. "These technologies are being used today to create a lot of value for farmers and reduce the environmental impact of farming ... And our business is scaling."
FarmWise is also having discussions with other equipment manufacturers about integrating and licensing its automation and computer vision system.
"There may be some retrofit use cases but we're really targeting reimaging agricultural equipment at the point of manufacturing," Leifer said. "The farm machinery can be reimagined to individualize the treatment whether that's mechanical hoeing or weeding like our system does or application of chemistry like a spraying-type system, but to do that on a plant-by-plant basis as a piece of machinery goes through the field. That saves farmers money but also has really cool environmental benefits."
AI-powered robotics companies have been scooping up investors' cash this year.
Sunnyvale-based Figure AI announced a whopping $675 million round in February.
In Santa Clara, Collaborative Robotics announced a new $100 million round last month.
A San Francisco startup called Electric Sheep has developed autonomous lawn mowers, and is armed with $25 million in funding. The company was one of Bay Area Inno's Startups to Watch this year.
Livermore-based Monarch Tractor also launched its fully electric, driver-optional tractors last year, and has raised more than $148 million, according to PitchBook. The company was also the winner of a Bay Area Inno award in 2022.
