AgFunder Network Partners

Category: Robotics & Automation

AgTech Exits: Raven Industries acquires two driverless tractor startups

November 7, 2019

Smart AG offers a driverless tractor technology to help farmers upgrade existing equipment to tackle time and labor challenges while DOT designs and manufactures ready-made autonomous equipment.

French poultry tech startup Tibot Technologies raises €3m seed round for health-boosting robot

October 16, 2019

The startup’s robots roam around poultry houses floors to encourage more bird movement and to prevent hens from laying eggs outside designated nest boxes.

Augmenta raises $2.5m seed round from Hardware Club, Marathon VC

October 8, 2019

The Greek tech startup will use the funds to support commercialization of its real-time device that analyzes crops and manages input application.

How to combat food safety concerns in Asia

October 3, 2019

Zebra Technologies helps mega corporations like Disney tackle the issue of food safety with its smart tech. Read on to find out why it's important.

The land of alt milk and AI honey: notes from Israel’s AgriFood Week

September 26, 2019

I tucked into my first ever breakfast in Israel early this Sunday morning faced with a blatantly biblical reminder, but there's nothing typical about the future milk and honey being developed by the country's booming foodtech scene.

Fifth Season comes out of stealth with 60k sqft vertical farm & $35m in funding

September 24, 2019

The Pittsburgh-based startup has developed 40 different robots to shave labor costs so that it can offer produce at a competitive cost.

FarmWise raises $14.5m Series A to expand its weeding robot service

September 17, 2019

The robotics-as-a-service company helps farmers weed their crops and hopes to move into other applications in the future like plant health and monitoring.

As Minneapolis tries to ban drive-thrus, McDonald’s tries to automate them

September 12, 2019

Using different languages to order your food could soon become a moot point at McDonald’s drive-thrus, with the company's acquisition of Apprente — a two-year-old startup that's been making impressive strides in voice recognition software.

Bellwether Coffee checks sustainability, fair wage boxes for impact fund DBL

September 12, 2019

“Bellwether Coffee has a dream team of sustainability and coffee experts and is addressing a large market ripe for improvement,” Nancy Pfund, managing partner at DBL Partners, tells AFN.

The Amazon is being decimated. How could tech have prevented it?

August 28, 2019

The Amazon Rainforest is being whittled away by one of the most massive blazes in history. Could tech have prevented it?

Yamaha leads $7.5m Series A in strawberry harvesting robot

August 27, 2019

Yamaha Motor Ventures' Nolan Paul tells AFN the biggest challenges for robotics and why he thinks Advanced Farm Technologies will go all the way.

Spyce up your life with robot woks: review from Boston

August 21, 2019

For the last several months, I’ve been monitoring the roll-out of robo-chefs in restaurants and I've started visiting them. Here's what I thought of Spyce in Boston.

Silicon Valley is bullish about food delivery robots, but cities and consumers aren’t 100% sold…yet

August 20, 2019

Robotics startup Starship Technologies closed a $40 million venture round for its cooler-sized delivery robots but some cities are cracking down on autonomous robot testing amid consumer safety concerns.

Do consumers actually want restaurant tech?

August 20, 2019

A new study exploring consumer attitudes towards restaurant technology revealed that some see it as a quick marketing gig while others expect restaurants to adopt new digital tools.

Eatsa is dead; long live Brightloom! (And its leading robotic retail & software as a service)

August 1, 2019

There was something of a Mark Twain twang about investigating the curious disappearance of Eatsa, a partly-automated healthy fast-food chain where robots rustled up nutritious bowls of quinoa, writes Richard Martyn-Hemphill

MetoMotion raises $1.5m seed round for zany greenhouse robot that spots ripeness in tomatoes

July 31, 2019

Israel’s MetoMotion has revealed to AFN that it had secured $1.5 million in funding for its slightly zany answer to spotting ripeness in greenhouse-grown tomatoes: a luminous green multipurpose “Greenhouse Robotic Worker” (GRoW).

Robo-Made Octopus Balls Are Go! Japan’s Connected Robotics Raises $7.8m Series A

July 11, 2019

Japan’s Connected Robotics first made waves in Tokyo’s food tech space with its ballsy launch of OctoChef, a robot that serves hot octopus balls, and now it's adding to its portfolio with an ice cream-making bear, and breakfast in bed robot.

Robot Chefs That Can Serve 5m Types of Pizza: France’s Pazzi Raises Over $11m Series A

June 17, 2019

That is rather a lot of dough for a pizzeria.

Berry Picking Robot Hank Could be Perfectly Timed for Brexit Britain

June 11, 2019

Hank’s appearance on the British crop scene appears to be perfectly timed, with many UK farmers currently preparing for life without a steady flow of European Union (EU) fruit pickers and other seasonal workers.

A Q&A with Robert Saik: It’s Time to Get Big or Go Home for Agriculture Robotics

May 21, 2019

Although there are a number of farm robotics startups, they lack the scale necessary to make a meaningful impact, according to Robert Saik, CEO of DOT Farm Solutions retail strategies.