America’s food supply is fickle. From global warming to changing immigration laws to the global pandemic, how our food gets from the farm to our table is largely dependent on things that are out of our control. This is also one of the least digitized spaces in the global economy, according to Root AI.
The Wodburn-based startup envisions a world in which we get our produce from “hyper efficient” indoor farms that run on digitally controlled lights, nutrients and reclaimed water; a world where AI-enabled robots are the ones picking our food, not people. This vision is not only environmentally sustainable, but also more efficient because it takes the fragility and imperfection of humans out of the equation.
Now, with $7.2 million of fresh funding in its coffers, Root AI is one step closer to achieving its goal. TechCrunch reports that the round was led by Rob May of PJC, Josh Kopelman of First Round Capital and Outsiders Fund’s Jason Calacanis and Austin McChord, bringing the company’s total funding raised to $9.5 million.
Root AI was founded by Josh Lessing and Ryan Knopf. Together, they have decades of experience in the robotics space, working at institutions like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania. Both spent several years at Bedford-based Soft Robotics and then launched Root AI in 2018.
Virgo, the company’s primary product, has an arm with a gripper designed to gently pluck fruits and veggies right off the vine without damaging them. It also has a 3D-mapping camera that can collect and analyze crop data like “its nutrition, its disease, its yield forecasting [and] its harvesting,” Lessing told WBUR.
So far, Root AI has conducted tests of its bots in California, Maine, New York, Ohio, Canada and the Netherlands. The company plans to use this money to scale its operations, hiring for technology, development and field operations positions, according to BostInno. Lessing also told the publication that the company plans to deploy across North America in the next year, aiming to disrupt this space for the better.
“If you can have an automatic food supply chain, you’ve solved one of humanity’s biggest problems,” Lessing told BostInno. “Continuity in the food supply, predictability, lower costs to increase accessibility — that benefits everyone.”
