Farm-ng: Revolutionizing Agriculture with Modular Robots for Diverse Farming Tasks

Agriculture: A Frontier for Robotics Innovation

Agriculture is set to become one of the next significant sectors for robotics innovation. With everyone needing food, a large portion of what we consume in this region is produced by expansive farmlands. Farming is physically demanding, often involving long hours in challenging conditions, and attracting and retaining workers can be especially difficult due to a heavy reliance on migrant labor.

Over the past decade, numerous startups have aimed to automate agricultural tasks, but this can be a challenging market to break into. Many of these companies have ultimately sold to established players like John Deere, who are keen on dominating the industry.

Typically, startups that enter the agricultural robotics space focus narrowly on specific tasks, such as weeding or apple picking. However, Farm-ng, a Bay Area startup founded during the pandemic, is broadening its approach. Its first system, Amiga, is designed to be modular, making it suitable for a variety of applications. This innovative concept of modularity emerged while collaborating with farmers in California’s Pajaro and Salinas Valleys.

Claire Delaunay, the newly appointed CTO and former Nvidia engineer, explained, “Our modular system functions like Legos for farmers, enabling them to create tailored solutions at a low cost. We aim to ensure our technology is easily accessible for farmers, allowing them to adapt, maintain, and extend the software according to their needs. While modularity isn't new in agriculture—many tractors are modular—our focus is on empowering farmers to customize tools for specific crops and practices."

Today, Farm-ng has announced a $10 million Series A funding round led by Acre Venture Partners, following a seed round last March. In less than 18 months, the company has rolled out around 100 Amiga units, with some of the new funding set to enhance production at its Watsonville plant in Pajaro Valley.

Farm-ng asserts that its systems offer a rapid return on investment for farmers. “The integration of Amigas into farming operations has resulted in significant time and cost savings," says Delaunay. "We found that Amiga reduced weekly labor requirements by 50% to 80% across various operations, including seeding, weeding, and compost spreading. While we expect more detailed insights after one or two growing seasons, our clients are already enthusiastic about the efficiencies a streamlined operation can deliver.”