Harvest automation — in search of new capital sources

When Western Growers launched the Global Harvest Automation Initiative (GHAI) in February 2021 in Tulare, the goal was to accelerate the pace of harvest automation / mechanization. The initial focus was to help harvest automation startups develop solutions faster with an 80/10/10 development model — 80% of their product should come from off the shelf technologies, 10% would be customized off the shelf solutions, and 10% would be entirely new technology. By creating a common architecture for components that could be standardized, we could help startups focus on the really tough problems that need solving to automate harvest — in many cases this turns out to be the end effector that actually does the harvesting (or picking) and the artificial intelligence that translates the images of the crops into actions that drive the end effector.

We have made good progress in 6 months, engaging a group of world class subject matter experts (SMEs) in ag, agtech, and tech to help design and start to build the platform that all harvest innovators can leverage to get to field trials and scale quicker. The SMEs came from Trimble, Bosch, Ramsay Highlander, Oxbo, Grimmway Farms, Church Brothers Farms, Turlock Fruit Company, Milano Technical Group, and Spudnik. We picked an innovator cohort of harvest automation startups and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) / custom manufacturers that are expected to lead the way in harvest automation in key crop types. The focus on building technology to enable startups to leverage…