Farmwise, a California-based farm automation startup, announced recently that it secured $45M in an oversubscribed Series B funding round led by AgTech venture firms Fall Line Capital and Middleland Capital
Others, including GV and Taylor Farms, as well as existing investors Calibrate Ventures, Playground Global, SVG Ventures, and the venture arm of Wilbur Ellis, also participated in the round. To date, FarmWise has raised $65M in equity.
In addition to the announcements, Clay Mitchell, co-founder and managing director of Fall Line Capital and a fifth-generation Iowa farmer, joins the FarmWise board of directors.
“We decided to invest in FarmWise because we believe that the technology the team has brought to market can unlock significant savings for producers in and beyond the vegetable market at a time when it’s most needed,” says Clay Mitchel, co-founder and managing director of Fall Line Capital.
How will the funding be used?
FarmWise will use the funds to accelerate its roadmap to release a vegetable weeding implement to serve many more farmers within the vegetable industry.
The company also plans to add capabilities for its technology used on row crops farms, which are equally challenged by the dwindling resources.
Streamlining farm operations
Founded by Sébastien Boyer, and Thomas Palomares in 2016, FarmWise provides technology-based services that allow farmers to streamline farm operations and increase food production efficiency.
The company’s first product is an automated mechanical weeder powered by AI and robotics called Titan.
It detects the crops from the weeds and uproots the latter with centimeter precision without using any chemicals.
To date, the company has been operating as a custom service provider to large vegetable farms across California and Arizona for three commercial seasons, increasing revenues threefold year over year.
After 15,000 commercial hours, FarmWise has enriched its plant database with over 450M scanned images of individual crops.
“We started FarmWise with the conviction that farmers should be supplied with cost-effective, sustainable solutions to feed a growing world, and artificial intelligence is the ideal technology to make this a reality,” says Sebastien Boyer, co-founder, and CEO of FarmWise. “With rising costs in the agricultural industry, we’re continuing to expand our technology to work with many more farmers.”
“Over the past two years, it has been exciting to watch FarmWise establish itself as a reliable solutions partner to many in our industry,” says Ted Taylor, head of new ventures and business development at Taylor Farms. “We are thrilled to be supporting FarmWise as a customer, and now investor, as they move into the future.”
