FEATURE STORY Agtech is Already Here
By Tim Linden T here are many very cool high-tech ideas bouncing around the specialty crop industry, moving forward at various levels of speed, jumping one hurdle after the next. But there are also success stories and real agtech being utilized on the farm. Below are two companies that are well past concept development and are offering equipment that materially reduces the need for labor.
Bear Flag Robotics could well be the poster child for agtech startups. Co-Founders Aubrey Donnellan and Igino Cafiero started the company in 2017 in Silicon Valley, focusing on the development of autonomous farming tractors that are compatible with existing farm machinery. The emphasis was on retrofitting existing tractors with patented artificial intelligence technology to increase their efficiency and productivity. They soon joined a startup accelerator program and received seed money. They also became a resident of the Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology. In 2018, Bear Flag partnered with a venture capital company and over the next couple of years received significant funding to move its concept forward. They first put an autonomous tractor in the field in 2018 and launched a commercial version of their technology in late 2019. By 2021, they were involved directly with many growers, including partnering with Church Brothers. Along the way, Bear Flag Robotics began working with John Deere as part of its Startup Collaborator program. The collaboration was a success, and the Bear Flag Robotics was acquired by John Deere about a year ago. The agreement has been valued at $250 million with Bear Flag staff still in place and running the operation, albeit with significant help from John Deere. Cafiero said the agreement has resulted in a significant acceleration of the development and implementation of its farm automation. He recently told WG&S that while Bear Flag Robotics has successfully launched and been acquired, he has learned a lot in the process and would do things a bit differently if he had it to do all over again. In creating an autonomous tractor, Bear Flag concentrated on tillage, reasoning that the operation was a time-consuming
Top: Bear Flag in Action Above: Bear Flag Robotics in a Salinas field
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JULY | AUGUST 2022
Western Grower & Shipper | www.wga.com
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