Fieldwork Robotics has raised £675,000 through an equity fundraising round to further develop its agricultural robot technology for harvesting soft fruit and vegetables.
The funding should enable Fieldwork to scale up its raspberry-harvesting robot and bring it to market.
An alpha prototype of the raspberry harvester is to enter further field trials in July, subject to Covid-19 restrictions. Fieldwork will then focus on preparing the robot design for manufacture.
Furthermore, the University of Plymouth spin-out will use the investment to continue its partnership with vegetable producers Bonduelle.
Read more: Bonduelle Group and Fieldwork collaborate on cauliflower harvesting robot
Rui Andres, chief executive officer, Fieldwork Robotics, said: “The investment demonstrates the strong interest in the technology at a time when growers all over the world are struggling to recruit labour.”
In addition to the fundraising, University of Plymouth Enterprises Limited, the University of Plymouth’s commercial consultancy and contract arm, has converted £44,000 of patent costs into equity.
The funding round means Frontier IP’s equity stake in the business now stands at 22.2%.
The technology’s potential has been previously recognised by Innovate UK, which awarded the company a £547,250 industrial strategy challenge fund grant in 2018 to accelerate development of its technology.
This was part of a £671,484 project, whose other partners included the University of Plymouth and the National Physical Laboratory.
Innovate UK has since awarded a further three grants to Fieldwork totalling £303,000 to continue working through the Covid-19 pandemic.
In addition, a £50,000 grant from Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority has supported the cost reduction of specific components.
