Vertical farming company Oishii, best known for its premium strawberries and tomatoes, has acquired the “key IP and assets” of harvest robotics startup Tortuga AgTech. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Colorado-based Tortuga AgTech is best known for its robots that harvest strawberries, table grapes, and berries, in addition to collecting data from plants and performing a few other tasks such as trimming and treating plants with UV-C light.
“We have had our eye on Tortuga AgTech’s growth over the years and watched as they successfully deployed $50 million in capital over eight years to develop industry leading technology,” Oishii cofounder and COO Brendan Somerville told AgFunderNews.
“We have known the Oishii team for years, but began partnering this past fall to apply our technology in Oishii’s farm units,” Tortuga AgTech CEO and cofounder Eric Adamson told AgFunderNews.
“With the downturn in agritech venture capital, we realized that the ethos and team at Oishii offered the best fit for creating the most immediate and valuable opportunities for all parties involved. Oishii also stands out as an innovator that has uniquely gotten real products to market.”
Robots can ‘surpass human farmers in the picking of strawberries’
Tortuga AgTech’s commercial harvesting fleet is currently 150 robots strong and was originally built for strawberry picking.
Oishii will acquire Tortuga AgTech’s advanced robotics technologies including its AI models, frontier robotics software and custom hardware. These technologies will be integrated into Oishii’s robotic system, which it has developed in partnership with Yaskawa Robotics.
Oishii claims that these additions will enable the robots to “surpass human farmers in the picking” of strawberries and reduce harvest expenses by 50%.
That’s no small claim, considering the fact that harvest is widely seen as the most difficult task on the farm to automate and/or roboticize, largely due to engineering challenges.
In addition to Tortuga AgTech’s IP and assets, its team was a major draw for Oishii, said Somerville.
“Specifically, Oishii has welcomed key members of Tortuga AgTech’s world-leading engineering team to join forces with our own,” he said. “These individuals bring invaluable expertise that will contribute significantly to our ongoing innovation and development efforts.”
The majority of Tortuga’s team has been immediately integrated, and the teams are already actively working together, he added.
Oishii is one of just a handful of vertical farming companies that are currently thriving at a time when many more have either declared bankruptcy or closed up shop completely. The company, which raised $134 million in 2024, has been slowly but steadily expanding availability of its strawberries from the Northeast US to other parts of the country including D.C., Chicago, Virginia, Texas, and Wisconsin.
For the Tortuga AgTech team and tech, the deal presents “a promising future,” Tortuga’s Adamson told AgFunderNews.
“Oishii’s strong vision, industry leadership, and great success in fundraising from many types of investors gives Tortuga’s technology and vision the best chance of industry-changing success, while directly impacting Oishii’s bottom line.”
Adamson said the company will for the time being focus on integrating its technologies into Oishii’s existing production facilities and technical roadmap. He hinted at future innovations for harvesting robots but noted that the team is “not ready to share plans yet.”
“Along with a sharp sense of the economic and commercial requirements for success, acceleration is key her,” he added. “Tortuga supercharges the strong engineering foundation Oishii has already built and we’re excited about seeing the expansion of our robotics expertise as a team.”
