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Bluewhite, an Israeli startup that provides technology that can enable any tractor to operate autonomously, has raised $39 million in Series C funding at a valuation between $200 million and $300 million.
- The round was led by Insight Partners, with participation from new investors Alumni Ventures and LIP Ventures. Existing investors Entrée Capital, Jesselson and Peregrine Ventures also joined in the round.
- The round brings the company’s total capital raised to $87.5 million.
Bluewhite 101: Founded in 2017, the startup’s solution includes a hardware and software component that allows farmers to autonomously operate and manage their tractors.
- The hardware, called “Pathfinder”, can be attached to almost any tractor or agricultural implement, turning it into an autonomous vehicle that becomes part of a fleet.
- The software, called “Compass”, can be used to operate fleets, and it collects data, analyzes it using AI and provides insights to help farmers reap greater harvests.
Traction: Bluewhite is currently being used by more than 20 farms in the US across multiple crop types, including nuts, berries, apples, grapes and hops. The startup has already completed more than 50,000 hours of autonomous farming activity across 150,000 acres of crops in California and Washington.
Looking ahead: Bluewhite intends to use the funding to continue scaling up its operations in the US and expand into new markets worldwide.
- “Having already proven the commercial success of our solution with growers, this new round of funding will enable us to continue providing sustainable autonomous innovation to more markets and work with different types of partners across the ecosystem to impact every level of the food supply chain,” said Ben Alfi, co-founder and chief executive of Bluewhite.
Agri-Equipment: Bluewhite is part of a bigger wave of startups in the agricultural equipment domain trying to apply technology to make farm operations more efficient.
- The global market for autonomous tractors is projected to reach $7.1 billion by 2028, according to Markets and Markets.
- Other notable startups in the space include Farm-ng, Growmark, Aigen, Monarch, and Mineral.ai.
