Orchard Robotics Secures $22 Million Series A to Propel AI Farming Automation

San Francisco, CA – Orchard Robotics, a leader in AI-powered agricultural technology, has announced the successful closure of an oversubscribed $22 million Series A funding round. This significant investment, led by Quiet Capital and Shine Capital, aims to accelerate the company's mission to enhance the resilience and efficiency of the global food supply through advanced farm automation. The funding brings Orchard Robotics' total capital raised to over $25 million.

Founded in 2022 by Thiel fellow Charlie Wu, Orchard Robotics is dedicated to building the "AI farmer" to automate national farms, making agricultural practices more profitable, efficient, and sustainable. The company's technology addresses critical data gaps in farming, providing growers with precise insights to optimize crop management. Wu, who comes from a family of apple farmers, spun the company out of Cornell University.

The core of Orchard Robotics' offering includes the FruitScope Vision system, an AI-powered camera platform that mounts to farm vehicles to collect precision data on every crop. This data feeds into FruitScope Vault, a system-of-record for farm data, and FruitScope OS, a modern farm management software suite that enables data-driven decision-making. An upcoming AI, Canary, is designed to automate and optimize farm decision-making.

The recent Series A follows earlier funding rounds, including a seed round that saw participation from investors like General Catalyst. Commenting on the company's progress, investor Leo Polovets recently stated in a tweet, > "It's been a privilege to work w/@ccharliewu for the last two years. He's an exceptional founder and Orchard Robotics is doing the important work of making our food supply more resilient and efficient." Polovets highlighted aspects that stood out during the seed round a few years prior.

With the new capital, Orchard Robotics plans to double its workforce by the end of the year and establish a new office in San Francisco. CEO Charlie Wu emphasized the strategic importance of this investment, noting, "Solving farming is a data problem, and data is the bedrock of every farming decision." He added that this funding will significantly accelerate their ability to deliver a sustainable future for agriculture.

Orchard Robotics' technology is currently deployed across major apple and grape farms in the United States and is expanding to support other crops such as blueberries, cherries, almonds, and citrus. The company operates in a growing agtech landscape, with competitors including Bloomfield Robotics, Vivid Robotics, and Green Atlas, all working to bring advanced automation and data solutions to the agricultural sector.