Insider Brief
- Dogtooth Technologies raised more than £14 million in growth capital to expand deployments of its robotic harvesting systems in the U.K. and international markets.
- The funding includes equity from 24 Haymarket, EMV Capital and ACF Investors, grants from Innovate UK and a venture leasing facility from Kineo Finance.
- Dogtooth said its robots use computer vision, AI and robotic manipulation to navigate growing environments, identify ripe fruit and harvest delicate crops, with systems already deployed commercially, including a recent delivery to Dyson Farming.
Dogtooth Technologies has raised more than £14 million in funding to expand deployments of its robotic harvesting systems in the U.K. and beyond.
The funding includes equity from 24 Haymarket, EMV Capital and ACF Investors, grants from Innovate UK and a venture leasing facility from Kineo Finance, according to the company.
Dogtooth said the capital will be used to expand deployments, strengthen its technology platform and speed up adoption of autonomous harvesting systems across horticulture.
The company builds robots that use computer vision, AI and robotic manipulation to navigate growing environments, identify ripe fruit and harvest delicate crops. Dogtooth said its systems have already been deployed commercially, including a recent delivery to Dyson Farming.
“For many years, robotic harvesting has been viewed as a distant aspiration,” CEO Duncan Robertson said in the announcement. “Today, growers are deploying our robots on commercial farms because labor shortages are a reality that cannot be ignored. The convergence of AI, robotics and practical customer demand is creating a unique opportunity to transform the production of fruit and vegetable produce.”
Dogtooth said beyond helping with the increasing costs tie to season labor shortages, robotic harvesting can help growers increase harvesting capacity, reduce dependence on seasonal labor availability and make production systems more resilient.
Image credit: Dogtooth Technologies