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USA (CA) - Iron Ox Raises $20 Million To Grow Robotic Greenhouse Operations
The funding will be used to open additional robotic growing facilities in California and other parts of the U.S., according to company co-founder and CEO Brandon Alexander
Khari Johnson @kharijohnson
September 9, 2020
Robotics farming company Iron Ox today announced the close of a $20 million funding round. The funding will be used to open additional robotic growing facilities in California and other parts of the U.S., according to company co-founder and CEO Brandon Alexander. The funding will also be used to hire additional machine learning and robotics experts as well as growers and scientists who work with plants.
“We’re now competing on price with field farms, but we think we can do even better and take this to more people,” he said.
Iron Ox employs a 1,000-pound mobile transport system roughly the size of a car to move trays of growing vegetables and tend to plants using a robotic grasper while computer vision systems monitor the plant growth cycle. The semi-autonomous system still relies on humans for a part of its seeding, pruning, and inspection process, Alexander said, but the goal is for Iron Ox to someday be fully autonomous.
While startups like Bowery practice indoor vertical farming in urban facilities near New York and Baltimore, Iron Ox has turned its focus toward greenhouse farming since the company was founded in 2015 as a way to lower energy costs. Earlier this year, Iron Ox opened its first greenhouse, a 10,000-square foot facility in Gilroy, California, the company’s second location. Iron Ox currently provides produce to 15 Whole Foods stores in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Though Gilroy is known as the garlic capital of the world, Iron Ox does not currently grow any garlic. Instead, the company focuses on leafy green vegetables like lettuce and some herbs.
Alexander said Iron Ox’s biggest challenge is how to use data collected by sensors to train AI systems that produce higher yields at lower costs.
“I would say in agriculture as a whole it’s not just collecting data, it’s not just taking an image, but it’s actually how do you include that data into the decision making process?” Alexander said. “I would say that is the biggest challenge in ag is how do you respond to these each individual plants and the variety and all these little variables.”
The $20 million funding round was led by Pathbreak Ventures with participation from Crosslink Capital, Amplify Partners, Eniac Ventures, R7 Partners, Tuesday Ventures, and At One Ventures. Iron Ox is based in San Carlos, California. The company currently has 30 employees and has raised $45 million to date.
Field farming today is still the most efficient way to grow produce. However, concern about shrinking field yields and instability due to climate change has spurred interest in indoor farming. In 2018, international teams from companies like Microsoft and Tencent competed against each other to find out who could grow the highest yield of cucumbers inside a greenhouse using AI and automation. (Spoiler: The Microsoft team won.)
In other AI and agriculture news, last month the startup iFarm raised $4 million for its AI-driven urban farming solution, and in June the startup Burro began rolling out its autonomous farm robot in southern California to assist in grape harvesting.
Image credits: Iron Ox
VIDEO: iFarm Raises $4 Million To Automate Urban Farming With AI And Drones
The Finnish startup has developed a vertical agricultural system called iFarm Growtune. By growing food closer to consumers and in spaces where conditions can be carefully controlled, iFarm promises to produce food that is fresher while reducing environmental impact
August 20, 2020
Image Credit: iFarm
iFarm has raised $4 million to expand its automated system that uses AI and drones to grow fruits and vegetables in enclosed spaces. Gagarin Capital led the round of funding, which included investment from Matrix Capital, Impulse VC, IMI.VC, and some business angels.
The Finnish startup has developed a vertical agricultural system called iFarm Growtune. By growing food closer to consumers and in spaces where conditions can be carefully controlled, iFarm promises to produce food that is fresher while reducing environmental impact.
As companies rethink logistics and the environment in the wake of the pandemic, self-contained urban farms hold growing appeal.
“The main advantage of indoor farms is that you can be growing all year round, wherever you are,” said iFarm co-founder and CEO Max Chizhov. “And you don’t need a special technologist or agronomist who knows how to use software or grow stuff.”Automation, AI, robotics, and farming are increasingly converging. Paris-based Agricool installs automated systems shipping container to grow strawberries in urban areas. Naïo Technologies builds autonomous farming robots, a Berkeley lab is developing AI systems for polyculture gardening, Burro makes an autonomous vehicle to transport grapes during the harvest, and Enko Chem uses machine learning to help farmers protect their crops without pesticides.
Meanwhile, iFarm is working with clients, typically businesses or farmers, to set up systems in warehouses, factories, basements, and other spaces.
The iFarm system places seedbeds in long racks that are stacked up to 5 meters high. An array of sensors monitors and adjusts the lighting and humidity. Drones are equipped with computer vision to track the crops’ growth and provide further data for the system’s algorithm.
The company developed the algorithm by feeding it scientific data about plant growth, along with data obtained from working farms. The company’s platform can measure the size and weight of plants to help farmers modulate growing conditions. It also uses computer vision to spot potential diseases, which helps growers avoid the use of chemical treatments. In some cases, the system adjusts the microclimate automatically, but it can also provide recommendations to staff.
iFarm currently helps customers create farms ranging from 3,000 square meters to 5,000 square meters. The company has helped develop 11 farms in Finland, Switzerland, the U.K., the Netherlands, Andorra, Russia, and Kazakhstan. Chizhov said iFarm will use the new funding to continue the development of Growtune and expand into new countries in Europe and the Middle East.
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