Ag robotics specialist Reservoir is opening a new site in Washington’s Yakima Valley as its on-farm community for physical AI expands to tree fruit and blueberries and its membership tops 30 startups.
Reservoir Farms Washington—opening in spring 2027—follows the launch of sites in Salinas and Sonoma, California; and Yuma, Arizona. Partners include the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission, the North American Blueberry Council, and the Tri-City Development Council, which is providing financial support.
This follows commitments from John Deere, which recently pledged $10 million over three years, and Western Growers, which announced a $1.5 million, three-year partnership earlier this year.
Reservoir is also exploring a partnership with Washington State University’s Prosser Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center.
Bonsai Robotics (AI-powered ag ‘bots), Sky Sense (drone-based bird mitigation), Cordon (precision spraying), and Rootline Robotics (weeding via electrocution) will join the Washington site as members, says Reservoir, which is on a mission to accelerate rugged physical AI through a combination of venture investment and hands-on practical support.
Building ‘bots with growers ‘involved from day one’
Mirroring the model deployed by Reservoir at its farms in Salinas, Sonoma, and Yuma, Reservoir Farms Washington will place startups on working farms alongside researchers and growers to build, test and refine their tech. Initial work will focus on apples, pears, cherries and cultivated blueberries, with additional testing in wine grapes and hops, and plans to extend into row crop systems over time.
Blueberries “combine nearly every challenge Reservoir startups work on: a labor-intensive harvest that is hard to mechanize without damaging fruit, and constant disease and pest pressure,” noted Reservoir. For Washington apples, meanwhile, labor represents 50% to 57% of orchard variable costs.
“Our growers are spending more on inputs every season, and they will not adopt technology that was not developed or tested locally,” said Ines Hanrahan, executive director of the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission. “A machine that hasn’t been through a Washington growing season isn’t ready for one. Building here, with growers involved from day one, is how we make sure our industry is robot ready, and the robots are ready for our industry.”
Novel components
While high-profile setbacks in the space have made some investors wary, advances in perception technologies, edge computing, AI and robotics combined with a growing stack of off-the-shelf hardware and software are helping startups build more flexible machines more quickly, Reservoir founder Danny Bernstein told AgFunderNews.
“The whole system is now more investable,” with machines that are now being “assembled, prototyped and tested in less than six months” on a tight budget, he said. “There are very few companies who are really building the entire stack now.”
Reservoir, in turn, is becoming “less interested in full stack,” added Bernstein. “I think that’s something that an integrator can do. We’re more interested in extremely novel components.”
For example Reservoir Washington member Rootline Robotics, which uses electricity to zap weeds, could partner with other companies that already have ‘bots deployed in fields doing other things, he said.
“So [Norwegian/US UV-C light specialist] Saga Robotics has sold 250 robots. They could add electrocution [to their autonomous machines]. Maybe you could you could use UV light from Saga and electrocution from Rootline. This is something that you’ll see Reservoir talking more and more about.”
He added: “Rootline Robotics is in the prototyping process right now in Sonoma County, and Reservoir just invested in its pre-seed round. We’re really excited about them as I think a lot of people feel like it’s a space that is really promising in terms of scale and price points. Plus, there are opportunities to beyond agriculture into land management, turf, golf courses and other areas.”
Asked about new developments in autonomous harvesting and the bendy Dr. Octopus-style arms of Israeli ag robotics startup Picker AgRobotics, he said: “It’s a novel approach; we’re really interested in a wave of innovation around manipulation. This is going to begin a five-, seven-, nine-year period of innovation around manipulation.”
He added: “When we talk to the foundation model companies, when we talk to Nvidia, when we talk to Google, it’s clear that they also believe that we are entering a period where there’s going to be a lot of innovation around manipulation, so that’s something we’re tracking really closely.”
Reservoir already profitable
Reservoir, which soft-launched in 2025 in Salinas, is gaining traction rapidly, claimed Bernstein.
“This year we’re profitable. We’ll do $5 million+ ARR [annual recurring revenue] in 2026 and could be higher with a few major opportunities in the pipeline. So we’re really a fast-growing startup ourselves.”
Reservoir has different pricing tiers ranging from a free associate tier for startups that want to access farms for testing with insured machines to a $6,000-a-month package enabling members to use its locations “as their 24/7, 365 office space, access the farm, store very large equipment and access our precision shop,” said Bernstein. “We’re continuing to learn and evolve our model.”
Reservoir VC: ‘We think about not just ag or agtech, but rugged AI’
Reservoir’s VC arm is investing across two segments, said Bernstein. “We invest in agricultural robotics and the rugged physical AI stack. This could be safety autonomy; this could be a navigation system; this could be various componentry. And that has a much broader aperture of potential acquirers that is dotted along Silicon Valley.
“And so that’s where we think the space becomes more investable. We think about it not just as ag or agtech, but as rugged AI, rugged tech, and then the rugged AI stack, which can compound into Silicon Valley and beyond.
“What we’re seeing is that Reservoir is a diversification bet relative to their other physical AI bets, and they [potential LPs] see that we’re basically at the early stage, at the cornerstone where ag and robotics are meeting, and that I think differentiates us.”
Watch Danny Bernstein at the recent Ruggedize conference at Reservoir Farms, Salinas:
Further reading:
🎥 Can Picker AgRobotics’ Dr Octopus-style arms finally crack autonomous fruit harvesting?
🎥 Orchard Robotics CEO: Growers ‘shouldn’t have to be data analysts’
🎥 From 2D images to 3D worlds: Bonsai bets on AI-powered farm robotics
🎥 TRIC Robotics scales to 1,500 strawberry acres with 15-robot fleet
🎥 Carbon Robotics: $100m+ revenue, new machine and a path to IPO
🎥 ‘The whole system is now more investable’: Reservoir makes the case for ag robotics
