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Blue White Robotics converts tractors into autonomous vehicles to help farmers save cash. See the pitch deck it used to raise $37 million.
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- Agriculture technology startup Blue White Robotics has raised $37 million in fresh funding.
- The Israeli company retrofits farming vehicles to make them autonomous.
- See the pitch deck it used to raise the Series B.
A startup that retrofits tractors with technology to make them autonomous has raised $37 million in fresh funding.
Israel-based Blue White Robotics retrofits tractors with sensor kits linked to a software platform for operators. This gives the vehicle “eyes and ears” so it can operate autonomously and be operated remotely.
Blue White Robotics says its kit is available for a range of vehicles and can “do any activity that is needed” including spraying, mowing, disking, and other tasks. The vehicles also collect data, such as the color of a crop’s leaf or types of bug present.
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Founded in 2017 by three army veterans, the company is focused on permanent crops including raspberries, citrus, apples, and vineyards. It targets customers who own a fleet of at least 12 tractors and are based on the Californian coast.
Farming faces multiple challenges globally, namely an ageing workforce and a labor shortage. Blue White Robotics CEO Ben Alfi wants to turn laborers from tractor drivers to robotics operators, and cut the number of humans required in farming — though it isn’t clear this would solve either problem.
“People can concentrate on making themselves a worker of the 21st century, which means being an a robotics operator, and not a driver of a tractor,” Alfi said. “That has been done amazingly for the last 100 years, but the time for change has come.”
Alfi claimed his startup’s tech can cut a farmer’s costs by as much as 25%.
The startup joins the swathes of agriculture startups catching the eye of investors. Some $5 billion was raise by startups in the sector in 2020, more than double the $2.5 billion pumped in during 2019, according to a report from Finistere Ventures.
The company’s Series B was co-led by private equity and venture capital firm Insight Partners, which has backed Twitter, Shopify, and Hello Fresh, and existing investors Entrée Capital, which seeded the company and participated in its Series A.
The latest investment will be used to cement Blue White Robotics’ presence in the US, with Australia being its next target market as it continues building its fleet management system.
The company plans to double its 100-strong workforce within the next 18 months, with a focus on research and development.
See the pitch deck the startup used to raise its latest round:
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