[Disclosure: AgFunderNews’ parent company is AgFunder.]
The term “ag robotics” frequently conjures images of automatic weeders and precision spray equipment. To be sure, those applications fit most neatly into current narratives around reducing chemical inputs and addressing labor challenges.
However, the above categories are no longer the only ones drawing investors’ interest, as the top 20 ag robotics investment rounds of 2025 suggest.
The year saw investors pump capital into automation for orchards (Bonsai Robotics), harvesting (4AG), and areas of agtech beyond the field like oyster farming (Seascape).
The variety of companies below suggest ag robotic offerings are evolving from single-task machines to full platforms that can tackle a number of jobs—in the filed, the beehive, the greenhouse, and the ocean.
Farm robotics funding in 2025 is so far close to the $744 million raised in 2024—though deals are still coming in, even as we write this.
The AgFunder team will present full investment figures for 2025 in the coming months with the launch of its annual Global AgriFoodTech Investment report, including total funding for the year.
In the meantime, the preliminary numbers tell us who is raising capital right now and what to keep an eye on in 2026.
In focus: Q&A with Danny Bernstein, CEO at Reservoir
Part VC investor, part robotics studio and part startup incubator, The Reservoir launched in California this year to help startups tear down these barriers and get on a real path to commercialization. While its focus is currently on specialty crops, its goals apply to the entire sector. As CEO Danny Bernstein told AgFunderNews during a recent conversation, the next chapter for ag robotics will be about moving away from experimentation and towards “real, measurable impact.”
AgFunderNews (AFN): How is Reservoir Farms helping catalyze innovation in ag robotics?
Danny Bernstein (DB): Reservoir Farms is designed to close the gap between prototypes and production. By combining working specialty crop farms with R&D space, we’re helping robotics teams validate, iterate, and scale in real field conditions.
AFN: What is your focus in 2026?
DB: In 2026, Reservoir is focused on moving specialty crop robotics away from experimentation and toward real, measurable impact—particularly in harvest labor, non-harvest automation, and precision inputting, where the economics are already compelling for growers.
AFN: What excites you about ag robotics tech moving forward?
DB: We are excited about a new wave of ag robotics built on software-defined, rugged machines—systems that learn in the field, improve through real-world data loops, and deploy faster because they avoid reinventing the wheel.
AFN: Where are we in terms of capital efficiency for the sector?
DB: Ag robotics is entering a more capital-efficient phase. Open-source infrastructure, edge vision, and sim-first development are allowing teams at Reservoir Farms to iterate in production, not just in labs, and that changes what’s possible in 2026.
