Not going to lie, IUNU (pronounced “you knew”) isn’t the best title (additional complicated issues is the presence of a robotic referred to as “LUNA”). However the agtech agency is concerned in a strong enterprise and simply obtained a pleasant vote of confidence within the type of a Collection B spherical. In the present day’s information finds the Seattle-based agency choosing up $24 million in funding, led by Lewis & Clark Ventures, with S2G Ventures, Ceres Companions and Astanor Ventures returning for extra.
Relatively than working within the area or vertical farming, the corporate’s concentrating on the world of greenhouses. Its LUNA robotic system strikes alongside the highest of a greenhouse roof, checking in on crops utilizing pc imaginative and prescient. The system can detect drawback areas and spots which might be prepared to reap, so farmers don’t should stroll up and down crops — one thing that begins to turn into a problem as farms scale.
These are the form of programs we’ve generally seen rolled out for extra conventional farms as half of a bigger autonomous robotic. Greenhouses actually make sense for the tech, as they successfully enable it to maneuver forwards and backwards on a monitor.
IUNU says it’s presently working with 1 / 4 of greenhouse leafy inexperienced growers within the U.S. The corporate presently employs 60, a 50% improve in headcount during the last six months. This spherical will go towards increasing its world footprint, in addition to rising R&D on new merchandise.
“This spherical of funding displays the arrogance institutional buyers have in us,” CEO Adam Greenberg says in a launch. “The dialog round autonomous rising has accelerated up to now 12 months, and we’re proud to be main the way in which on this entrance.
As at all times, information’s the massive play right here, and iUNU claims it presently has the “largest manufacturing dataset within the trade,” based mostly on present deployment. A giant cache like that’s necessary for creating algorithms that may assist establish potential issues earlier than they turn into main points for a given crop.
In September, the corporate acquired our 2015 Startup Battlefield winner Artemis (nee Agrilyst) to bolster its data-collecting capabilities.
