In modern agriculture, the largest farms still make million-dollar decisions based on field samples that represent less than 0.01% of their crops. That reliance on incomplete data has long hampered growers’ ability to plan labor, apply inputs, and manage harvests. Orchard Robotics, a San Francisco-based startup, is betting that better information can change that equation.
Orchard Robotics just announced a $22 million Series A funding round led by Quiet Capital and Shine Capital, with participation from General Catalyst, Contrary, Mythos, Valyrian, and Ravelin. High-profile individual investors include Formula One world champion Nico Rosberg and Yext and Roam founder Howard Lerman. The round brings the company’s total funding to more than $25 million.
Founded in 2022 by Charlie Wu, a Thiel Fellow who left Cornell University to start the company, Orchard Robotics develops hardware and software systems designed to give farmers a complete view of their fields. “Solving farming is a data problem, and data is the bedrock of every farming decision,” Wu said in a statement. “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”.
Turning Images Into Insights
Orchard Robotics’ platform offers two core products: the FruitScope Vision System and FruitScope Vault & OS. The Vision System mounts onto tractors or other vehicles to capture millions of images as they pass through orchards and vineyards. Those images are processed by the company’s AI to assess growth, yield, and plant health across entire fields.
The Vault & OS component functions as a system of record, storing and analyzing the collected data while providing farmers with tools to guide management decisions. The company describes the setup as an “OS for precision crop management,” a way to integrate imaging and analytics into day-to-day operations ranging from labor planning to harvest timing.
Orchard’s technology was initially deployed in apple and grape production, two of the most data-intensive specialty crops. The company has since expanded to blueberries, cherries, almonds, pistachios, citrus, and strawberries. According to public statements, its systems are in use at many of the country’s leading fruit farms.
The company plans to use the funds to double its workforce by the end of the year and establish a new San Francisco office. Its team is currently split between Washington and California.
A Crowded but Growing Field
Orchard Robotics is part of a broader wave of agricultural technology startups focused on data collection and analysis. In Washington state alone, competitors include Loftus Labs, innov8.ag, and FruitScout, which also provide crop monitoring solutions, as well as IUNU and Koidra, which specialize in greenhouse operations. Other regional firms, such as Carbon Robotics, Aigen, TerraClear, FarmHQ, and Verdi, address adjacent challenges ranging from weed control to irrigation.
Farms today face rising labor costs, supply chain risks, and pressure to operate more sustainably. Technology providers that can offer reliable, actionable data are positioned to capture demand.
Wu argues that agriculture has not “fundamentally evolved in the last 20 years, despite dramatic increases in costs”. Orchard Robotics’ bet on evolving this agriculture space will depend on adoption rates and the company’s ability to deliver measurable returns for growers.
