16. Carbon Robotics
Seattle-based Carbon Robotics offers an AI-powered laser weeder that attaches to farmers' tractors and looks like a space-age combine, except that it weeds instead of harvests.
Supplied with a database of 40 million images, the AI-powered agtech system shoots lasers as it passes over rows of crops, with machine learning enabling it to recognize weeds and kill them at their base using a laser, replacing the need for both manual labor and herbicides. The company says it has destroyed more than 15 billion weeds on more than 100 crops.
Carbon Robotics says its approach to weeding increases yields, quality and consistency, and helps preserve topsoil. The latter is a growing global concern, as experts estimate most of the world's topsoil has been degraded to the point that its agriculturally usable life is measured in decades.
Carbon Robotics operates in a competitive market, against other agtech innovators including Deere's Blue River Technology and FarmWise. But the bigger legacy competition in the business is related to farmers' limited appetite for change. Global chemical companies including Monsanto (now part of Bayer AG), Syngenta AG and BASF dominate the agriculture market with matched combinations of herbicides and seeds that are sold through platforms controlled by the companies.
Cost of agtech upgrades, and unproven technology compared to conventional farming approaches, is an issue. Laser weeder costs can run over $1 million, based on public reports, but farmers that have used the technology have endorsed it.
Recently, Carbon Robotics debuted the LaserWeeder G2, a smaller, less expensive version of its technology, though still a significant investment for many farmers in a business that's made inherently risky due to weather and the volatility of global commodities markets.
Carbon Robotics is growing quickly, and may have hit the market at the right time. It was founded in 2018 by serial entrepreneur Paul Mikesell, who had previously co-founded Isilon Systems, a distributed storage company, which went public in 2006 and was acquired by EMC for $2.5 billion in 2010. Last October, the company announced a $70 million Series D Round to fund a global expansion across North America, Europe and Australia.
As Carbon Robotics continues to innovate, consumers' and farmers' awareness of the long-term risks of chemical solutions is growing, as is the awareness among investors tied to AI applications across the economy. The latest venture round included NVIDIA's VC arm NVentures. The company already had a strategic partnership with Nvidia.
Carbon Robotics is growing its manufacturing in eastern Washington State, with a recent 70% headcount increase to about 200, and it ultimately has plans to grow its tech applications beyond farming. "There's a lot of people out there that know how to do stuff with their hands," said Mikesell in an interview with GeekWire. "The real driver is having AI systems doing things in the real world. Will Carbon Robotics always be in the ag industry? We'll probably do things well outside it," he said.
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