Australia-based agritech startup SwarmFarm Robotics has on Wednesday announced it has raised a AUD 12 million ($8.3 million USD) Series A funding led by Emmertech, an AgTech fund from Conexus Venture Capital based in Canada.
The funding also sees new investment from Tribe Global Ventures and Access Capital, SwarmFarm said in a statement.
Also joining the round are SwarmFarm’s existing investors, including Tenacious Ventures, and GrainInnovate, the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) venture capital fund managed by Artesian.
According to the statement, the funding will be used to develop and grow the Integrated Autonomy category in agriculture through the versatile SwarmBot platform and a breakthrough operating system network, SwarmConnect, that enables developers to create an array of innovative applications for users of the autonomous platform.
“There is enormous demand for autonomy in agriculture, but today, most solutions unlock minimal potential,” said SwarmFarm Chief Executive Officer Andrew Bate.
“The current equipment providers believe that farmers just want to be plucked from the cab or replaced by robotic arms. We believe that farmers want more,
“They want a technology ecosystem built to address the issues in their locality, a farm-centric system that leaves the lowest possible footprint on their fields, helping them do more with less. They want Integrated Autonomy, so that’s what we’re building,” he added.
The team at SwarmFarm defines Integrated Autonomy as a new approach to autonomy on-farm that unlocks the full potential of driverless technology by providing specialty robotics solutions with an open platform to develop on.
“While many companies are making driverless tractors and developing niche robotics solutions in agriculture today, we believe that there is a third category of autonomy that combines the robot and the application within a development framework that will allow farmers to customize their equipment for their needs and allow developers to bring their innovations to life much more rapidly,” said Bate.
“It’s the best of both worlds. For the farmer, we provide customized autonomy in a box. For the developer, we provide a streamlined path to the grower with a tight feedback loop,” he added.
SwarmFarm announced last year that SwarmBots had successfully been deployed to farmers who covered over 1.3 million commercial acres, operated for 64,000 hours, and reduced pesticide inputs by an estimated 780 tons.
“The key trait that drove our eagerness to lead this round was the farmer-centric approach this team is built around and the truly exceptional results their robots have achieved,” said Sean O’Connor, Managing Director of Emmertech.
“We met with several farmers who were putting upwards of 3,000 hours a year on their SwarmBot, often leaving them out in the fields for over 24 hours at a time,
“We believe there’s a future where SwarmBots can be found on farms across North America and worldwide,” he said, adding that this funding helps the firm to move toward that future by meeting more of the global demand for its product and facilitating the growth of its SwarmConnect network of developers.
Born on the Bate’s family farm in rural Queensland, SwarmFarm exists to solve a complex problem set many farmers are facing around the world today: how to grow better crops and the optimal amount of food on their land without putting down excessive amounts of chemicals or acquiring larger and larger equipment.
“What makes SwarmFarm so attractive to us is that the founders are Australian grain growers developing autonomous solutions from the ground up with Australian farming systems in mind, and the technology has global application,” said Fernando Felquer, Head of Business Development at GRDC.
The SwarmFarm team saw a future where developers could create specialized tools that could be attached to swarms of small, nimble, autonomous robot platforms that create new farming practices through facilitating collaboration between farmers and technologists – laying the groundwork for the SwarmConnect product.
Today, SwarmFarm serves customers across Australia and works with some of the most innovative farm equipment developers, including WEED-IT, Bilberry, Weedseeker, Hayes Spraying, Rasmussen Brothers Engineering, Goldacres, and Croplands.
“It is critical that we put tools into our farmers’ hands that help them do more with less. This is key to a climate resilient, profitable future for agriculture,” said Sarah Nolet, Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Tenacious Ventures.
“With their background in farming, the team at SwarmFarm has been able to see around some of the corners on the road to autonomy and anticipate the needs of the growers they serve,
“We look forward to continuing to work with them as they unlock more productivity and sustainability in agriculture through their unique approach to Integrated Autonomy,” he added.
SwarmFarm’s unique approach to autonomy resonates with its customers, resulting in consistent and continued growth. The team will hire for roles in their Queensland and New South Wales offices to support this growth.
Singapore’s The GrowHub partners Vietnam’s Society Pass to provide Australian food products