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Orchard Robotics, a startup developing artificial intelligence systems for specialty crop farming, has raised US$ 22 million in an oversubscribed Series A funding round. The capital will be used to accelerate product development, expand deployment across new crops, and scale operations to meet growing demand from farms in the US and in global markets.
The investment was led by Quiet Capital and Shine Capital, with continued participation from General Catalyst, Contrary, Mythos, Valyrian, and Ravelin. High profile investors such as F1 World Champion Nico Rosberg and Yext and Roam founder Howard Lerman also joined the round. This latest infusion brings Orchard’s total funding to more than US$ 25 million.
Quiet Capital Partner Michael Bloch, who will join Orchard’s board, said the company is addressing a long standing gap in agriculture. “Farmers are forced to make critical decisions based on imprecise data. The status quo is no longer sustainable,” Bloch noted. “Orchard is providing the ground truth this massive industry has desperately needed, turning guesswork into data driven precision.”
Addressing Agriculture’s Data Gap
Founded in 2022 by Thiel Fellow Charlie Wu, Orchard Robotics was built around the challenge of obtaining precise, field-level data in agriculture. Despite advances in technology, most large farms still rely on manual sampling that covers less than 0.01% of their crops. These incomplete measurements guide critical decisions on labor, inputs, farm management, and sales, often leading to inefficiencies and economic losses.
“Agriculture hasn’t fundamentally evolved in the last 20 years, despite dramatic increases in costs. Solving farming is a data problem, and data is the bedrock of every farming decision. But the lack of precise, actionable data is the bottleneck. Orchard Robotics exists to help our farmers become more profitable and efficient, and this new funding accelerates our ability to deliver a sustainable future for agriculture.”
Precision Crop Management Tools
The Orchard Robotics’ first product is an operating system for precision crop management. It consists of two core components:
FruitScope Vision System, an AI powered camera mounted on tractors or farm vehicles that captures millions of high resolution images. These images are analyzed to assess fruit size, color, and health, providing insights into every tree, vine, or plant across a farm.
FruitScope Vault & OS, a digital system of record that stores crop data and integrates it into a cloud based platform. Farmers can use this system to monitor plant health, track yields, and manage decisions related to labor, crop inputs, and harvest planning.
By offering a full spectrum view of crop conditions, the technology replaces estimates with accurate data, enabling more precise fertilization, pruning, thinning, and harvesting.
Expansion Across Crops and Markets
Orchard Robotics’ technology is currently deployed on several of the largest apple and grape farms in the United States. The company has recently expanded to support blueberries, cherries, almonds, pistachios, citrus, and strawberries.
To meet growing demand, Orchard Robotics is planning to double its workforce by the end of the year and will open a new office in San Francisco. The company expects this expansion to strengthen its customer support both across the US and internationally.
Charlie Wu was inspired to apply computer science to agriculture through his personal connection to farming. His grandparents were apple farmers in China, and while studying at Cornell University, a leading agriculture institution, he engaged with researchers who highlighted the lack of reliable crop data.
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Future Outlook
While the idea of applying computer vision to specialty crops is not new, Orchard Robotics is positioning itself in a competitive field. Wu acknowledges that the current market for fruit and vegetable data is valued at about US$ 1.5 billion. However, he sees opportunities to expand beyond data collection. His vision is for Orchard Robotics to evolve from gathering information to building an operating system that eventually manages all farm workflows.
“Our ambition is to be a lot more than just collecting data,” Wu said. “We want to collect the data, then build an operating system on top of the data, and then eventually own all the workflows in the farm. That’s going to have the potential to expand our market by quite a bit.”
Shifting Agriculture Toward Software
By replacing guesswork with actionable intelligence, Orchard Robotics represents a shift in the foundation of modern farming. Wu highlighted that without a clear understanding of what’s growing in the field, it’s impossible to determine the appropriate amount of chemicals to apply, accurately plan labor for harvest, or effectively market and sell the produce.
With fresh funding, a growing customer base, and expanded product offerings, Orchard Robotics is working to position software as the new competitive edge in agriculture.