Uber for agriculture is just around the corner, and Agtonomy is making it happen.
Using a mobile phone app, a farmer can assign a job to one of his or her tractors, which is basically like calling an Uber driver to the farm to do the work.
As demonstrated by John Deere at CES earlier this month, autonomy in farming is here. Agtonomy is working to mainstream this trend.
The deets: Agtonomy, a hybrid autonomy and tele-assist service startup, makes tractors and other machines autonomous. In a world where skilled labor can be hard to come by, autonomous machines provide a welcome low-cost and technology-enabled alternative.
The company just closed on a $5M Seed II funding round, bringing their total seed funding to $9M.
Soundbite: “Five years ago, it was hard to get any VC attention related to AgTech, but there has just been overwhelming interest from investors, and though we are just starting out, local agriculture needs help now,” Agtonomy co-founder and CEO Tim Bucher said.
What lies ahead: Within the next few months Bucher plans on 50 trials, plus doubling the company’s headcount, which currently stands at 20.