Upside Robotics, a Canadian agritech company that develops autonomous fertilizer application systems, has raised $7.5 million in a seed funding round led by Plural, with participation from Garage Capital and the founders of Clearpath Robotics. The round follows a pre-seed investment led by ANIMO Ventures and Moxxie Ventures, with participation from Entrepreneurs First and Scale Good Ventures, among others.
Fertilizer application in row crops is typically concentrated early in the season, and some estimates suggest that a large share of nitrogen applied is not absorbed by plants. According to Upside Robotics, this can lead to higher input costs and increased emissions.
The company’s approach replaces early mass application with autonomous, lightweight robots that apply fertilizer during the growing season based on crop requirements. By combining autonomous navigation with data-based decision systems, the robots are designed to reduce input waste while supporting crop yields.
Upside captures that agronomic knowledge and applies it autonomously in real time across every acre. We’re creating continuous crop care that works with nature and reduces decision fatigue for farmers.
Upside Robotics is among the agritech startups developing within Velocity, the flagship incubator at the University of Waterloo. Velocity offers participating founders mentorship, access to funding pathways, and connections across Canada’s technology corridor. Since its launch in 2008, the incubator reports supporting more than 500 startups, which together have generated over $40 billion in enterprise value.
Scaling Autonomous Fertilizer Deployment
Upside Robotics plans to operate on more than 3,000 acres across Ontario and the United States in 2026. The company states that early customers have reported potential savings of up to $150 per acre and fertilizer use reductions of up to 70%. It is preparing to expand into the U.S. Corn Belt and reports a waitlist of more than 200 farms.
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According to the company, its system is intended to support growers managing higher input costs, labor constraints, and climate-related variability, while enabling more targeted nutrient application. Co-founder and CTO Sam Dugan said the technology has logged over 10,000 autonomous kilometers and applied more than 100,000 liters of fertilizer across more than 1,200 acres to date.
Trust in robotics is earned in the field, not the lab. We built the system side by side with farmers, season by season. Today, that work has translated into more than 10,000 autonomous kilometers driven and over 100,000 liters of fertilizer applied across more than 1,300 acres.
Founded in 2024, Upside Robotics emerged from the Entrepreneurs First accelerator. Co-founder Tian previously worked in food innovation at Unilever and with growers, while Dugan has experience in mechatronics, autonomous vehicle research at GM, robotics at BMW, and drone technology.
Carina Namih, Partner at Plural, said the company has developed a product that has received strong customer support and engagement. Matt Rendall, co-founder of Clearpath Robotics, described Upside Robotics as an agronomy-focused company that applies robotics as a tool to address fertilizer waste.
Robotic Fertilizer at Commercial Crossroads
Upside Robotics’s expansion plans suggest growing interest in in-season, precision fertilizer application as input costs and environmental pressures increase. If the company reaches its projected 3,000 acres in 2026, it would represent an early but meaningful test of whether autonomous nutrient delivery can move beyond pilot deployments into routine farm operations.
The reported savings and fertilizer reductions, if sustained across diverse soil and weather conditions, could position robotic application as an alternative to conventional early-season bulk spreading. However, large-scale adoption in regions such as the U.S. Corn Belt may depend on operational reliability, service logistics, and the ability to integrate with existing farm management systems. Growers will likely weigh upfront costs, field speed, and maintenance demands against potential input savings.
The company’s emphasis on logged autonomous distance and applied volume indicates a focus on field validation, which may be critical in a sector where equipment performance directly affects yields. As labor shortages and nutrient runoff regulations remain ongoing concerns, autonomous systems that promise targeted application could find a receptive market, provided they demonstrate consistency, durability, and clear economic returns across multiple growing seasons.