Orchard Robotics, an innovator in AI-based farming technology, has announced the close of its oversubscribed $22 million Series A funding round. Led by Quiet Capital and Shine Capital, the round also saw continued support from General Catalyst, Contrary, Mythos, Valyrian, Ravelin, and notable individual investors, including Formula 1 World Champion Nico Rosberg and tech entrepreneur Howard Lerman.
With this latest infusion, the company’s total funding has now surpassed $25 million, positioning Orchard to accelerate its mission to transform agriculture through data-driven precision and secure America’s food supply.
Founded in 2022 by Thiel Fellow Charlie Wu, Orchard Robotics is addressing one of the most persistent and costly challenges in modern farming: the lack of accurate, field-level data. Despite the scale and sophistication of today’s agricultural operations, most farms still rely on manual sampling methods that cover only a tiny fraction of their crops—often less than 0.01%. These limited insights compel farmers to make high-stakes decisions about labor, crop inputs, and harvest strategies based on incomplete information, resulting in inefficiencies, economic losses, and missed opportunities for optimization.
Orchard’s solution is a comprehensive operating system for precision crop management, anchored by its flagship product, the FruitScope Vision System. This AI-powered camera system can be mounted on any tractor or farm vehicle, capturing millions of high-resolution images and analyzing every visible detail of each tree, vine, or plant. The data collected is then processed and stored in the FruitScope Vault, a centralized system-of-record that tracks plant health, growth, and yield across entire farms. Paired with Orchard’s software platform, farmers gain access to a powerful dashboard that enables them to make informed decisions and manage every aspect of field operations—from labor allocation to input application and harvest planning.
The impact of this technology is already being felt across some of the country’s most prominent apple and grape farms. Orchard’s reach is expanding rapidly, with deployments now underway in crops such as blueberries, cherries, almonds, pistachios, citrus, and strawberries. By providing farmers with real-time, actionable insights, Orchard is helping them reduce waste, improve yields, and respond more effectively to changing conditions—all while lowering costs and increasing profitability.
To support its rapid growth, Orchard Robotics is scaling its team and infrastructure. The company plans to double its workforce by the end of the year. It will open a new office in San Francisco, better serving its expanding customer base across the United States and internationally. This expansion reflects the growing demand for smarter, more adaptive farming solutions and Orchard’s commitment to being a long-term partner to the agricultural community.
How the funding will be used: The Series A funding will be used to develop Orchard’s technology further, expand its product offerings, and deepen its relationships with growers and industry stakeholders. As farming faces mounting pressures from climate change, labor shortages, and rising input costs, the need for precision tools has never been greater. Orchard Robotics is stepping into that gap with a solution that combines cutting-edge AI with practical, field-tested applications—bringing clarity, control, and confidence to the heart of agriculture.
KEY QUOTE:
“Agriculture hasn’t fundamentally evolved in the last 20 years, despite dramatic increases in costs. Solving farming is a data problem, and data is the bedrock of every farming decision. 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.”
Charlie Wu
