FarmWise, a developer of autonomous farming robots, has raised $14.5 million in a Series A funding round. FarmWise will use the funding to grow its robotic engineering and operation teams, and to boost research and development efforts on plant-level detection and actuation capabilities.
Autonomous and enabled by artificial intelligence, FarmWise’s robots are designed to solve some of the most difficult challenges encountered by farmers. The robots perform a variety of farming functions, beginning with weeding, and providing personalized care to every plant they touch.
Investment
Investment
GENIUS NY startups raise more than $10 million in additional private investments
GENIUS NY has announced that AutoModality, Civdrone, Fotokite, OmniMesh and TruWeather Solutions have raised more than $10 million in additional private investment.
All five of the startups participated in the GENIUS NY accelerator, with AutoModality and Fotokite receiving the $1 million grand prize investment during the accelerator.
“It’s exciting to see these early stage companies start to receive follow-on funding from names like Credit Suisse and ff Venture Capital,” says Jon Parry, director of GENIUS NY.
Voyage to use latest funding to expand its fleet of G2 self-driving cars in California and Florida
Self-driving car company Voyage has announced that it has completed a $31 million Series B fundraise, which brings the company’s total capital raised to $52 million.
Voyage will use this capital for a variety of purposes, including expanding its fleet of G2 self-driving cars in California and Florida, and to introduce its G3 self-driving car.
“At Voyage, our mission is to deliver on the promise of self-driving cars, and we are thrilled to be working with forward-thinking investors who deeply believe in that mission,” Voyage says.
“Together with these new resources, we will deliver an autonomous ride-hailing service to customers who truly need it!”
Simbe Robotics announces equity and inventory financing that will help expand its fleet of Tally robots
Known for its Tally robot, Simbe Robotics has announced two separate funding deals—a $26 million Series A, and an inventory financing agreement with SoftBank Robotics, which will enhance the company’s ability to “increase efficiencies in production and deployment
Starship Technologies to use latest funding to expand autonomous delivery service to 100 university campuses
Starship Technologies, known for its autonomous delivery service, has announced it has closed $40 million in Series A funding.
With plans to use this latest round of funding to “rapidly expand its services to more university campuses,” Starship has also announced plans to expand its service to 100 university campuses in the next two years.
“This new investment will see Starship expand onto more campuses as we head towards a goal of offering our service to over one million students,” says Lex Bayer, CEO of Starship Technologies.
UPS invests in TuSimple; testing self-driving tractor trailers in Arizona
UPS has announced that its venture capital arm, UPS Ventures, has made a minority investment in self-driving truck company TuSimple.
Building off of an ongoing commercial relationship between the two companies in which UPS has purchased transportation services from TuSimple, UPS and TuSimple are testing self-driving tractor trailers on a route in Arizona to determine if the vehicles are capable of improving service and efficiency in the UPS network.
“UPS is committed to developing and deploying technologies that enable us to operate our global logistics network more efficiently,” says Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer, Scott Price.
Recogni seeks to make autonomous vehicles a reality with low-power AI processing
A company called Recogni Inc. that designs a vision-oriented artificial intelligence (AI) platform for autonomous vehicles has emerged from stealth with the announcement of $25 million in Series A financing.
Volkswagen investing $2.6 billion in Argo AI
Volkswagen AG is investing $2.6 billion in self-driving vehicle company Argo AI.
Volkswagen will commit $1 billion in funding, and will also contribute its Autonomous Intelligent Driving (AID) company, which is valued at $1.6 billion.
“Our agreement with Volkswagen positions us as a technology platform company, expands the potential geography for deployment and will further fuel our product development,” Argo AI explains in a company blog post.
“In fact, we’re the first self-driving company with definitive deployment plans in both the United States and Europe.”
Connected Robotics developing robots to free restaurant staff to handle 'more humanistic' side of work
A company called Connected Robotics (CR) that develops specialized robot systems for cooking in restaurant kitchens has announced that it has raised $7.8 million during a Series A investment round.
According to CR, the company combines “robot control know-how” collected from robot product development experience in manufacturing along with sensing and learning technology using deep learning, which helps make the robots in the kitchen intelligent.
CR says that it wants to develop robot systems that handle the heavy lifting in the kitchen, so that restaurant staff can focus on the “more humanistic” side of work to provide a positive environment for those serving and customers alike.
