Orchard Robotics Secures $22 Million Series A to Scale Farm Vision AI
Key Points
- Orchard Robotics raised $22 million in a Series A led by Quiet Capital and Shine Capital.
- Founders include Charlie Wu, a Thiel fellow who left Cornell to build the startup.
- The platform uses tractor‑mounted cameras and AI to assess fruit health, size, and color.
- Current customers span large apple and grape farms, with new support for berries, nuts, citrus, and strawberries.
- Competitors include Bloomfield Robotics (now part of Kubota) and early‑stage firms Vivid Robotics and Green Atlas.
- The specialty‑crop data market is valued at roughly $1.5 billion.
- Orchard aims to evolve from data collection to owning full farm workflows, inspired by Flock Safety’s growth model.
Orchard Robotics, the Cornell‑dropout‑turned‑Thiel fellow startup founded by Charlie Wu, announced a $22 million Series A round led by Quiet Capital and Shine Capital, with participation from General Catalyst and Contrary. The funding will accelerate the company’s camera‑and‑AI platform that delivers ultra‑high‑resolution fruit health data to growers of apples, grapes, and other specialty crops. Wu says the technology helps farmers make precise decisions on fertilization, pruning, and harvesting, addressing the industry’s reliance on limited manual sampling.
Funding Round and Investors
Orchard Robotics disclosed a $22 million Series A financing led by Quiet Capital and Shine Capital. Returning investors General Catalyst and Contrary also took part, underscoring continued confidence in the company’s growth trajectory.
Founder Background and Vision
Charlie Wu, inspired by his grandparents’ apple farms in China, pursued computer science at Cornell University before dropping out to become a Thiel fellow. In 2022 he launched Orchard Robotics to apply computer‑vision and artificial‑intelligence to specialty‑crop agriculture.
Technology Platform
The startup’s solution mounts a small, high‑resolution camera on tractors or other farm vehicles. As the equipment traverses fields, the camera captures detailed images of fruit health, size, and color. Proprietary AI models analyze the data, producing actionable insights that are stored in a cloud‑based software platform. Growers can then target fertilization, pruning, thinning, and labor allocation with far greater precision than traditional manual sampling permits.
Current Deployments and Crop Coverage
Orchard’s system is already deployed on several of the nation’s largest apple and grape farms. The company recently expanded its offering to include blueberries, cherries, almonds, pistachios, citrus, and strawberries, broadening its reach across the specialty‑crop sector.
Market Landscape and Competition
The specialty‑crop data market is estimated at roughly $1.5‑billion, according to Wu. Competitors include Bloomfield Robotics—acquired by Kubota—along with seed‑stage firms Vivid Robotics and Green Atlas. Wu positions Orchard as a differentiated player by combining data collection with a cloud‑based operating system that can eventually own end‑to‑end farm workflows.
Future Outlook
Wu envisions the platform evolving beyond data capture to autonomous decision‑making, drawing a parallel to Flock Safety’s expansion from license‑plate reading to a broader public‑safety suite. He believes that as AI capabilities mature, Orchard could own more of the farm workflow, substantially expanding its market opportunity.