Dec 19, 2023
| 5 min read
Momenta, the leading Industrial Impact venture capital firm, announced today that they have led the Series A funding round for Agtonomy, a leading software and services company specializing in advanced autonomous and AI solutions for agriculture. The $22.5 million round was joined by strategic investors Doosan Bobcat North America, Inc. and Toyota Ventures.
This is the fifteenth company receiving investment from Momenta’s Digital Industry Fund III, powered by Advantech, the world leader in digital industrial solutions. Agtonomy will invest the funds to expand its customer pilot program and accelerate the development of its innovative offerings, driving forward the digital transformation in agriculture.
OPPORTUNITY
By 2050, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization predicts that we will need to produce 60% more food on smaller land to feed a growing global population of 9.3 billion. At the same time, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics expects employment of agricultural workers to increase by just 2% from 2020 to 2030, slower than the average for all other occupations. The skilled labor crisis and the growing impact of climate change compound the challenges for farmers and, more broadly, land maintenance operations.
SOLUTION
“Agtonomy’s technology is built to be embedded in equipment and implements, upskilling available labor,” said Tim Bucher, Co-Founder and CEO of Agtonomy. “By collaborating with established OEMs, we fast-track our sustainable technology to market, delivering essential solutions to address the pressing challenges of labor shortages and climate change for farmers and land maintenance operators.”
"Agtonomy is at the intersection of AI, Autonomy, and agriculture, a perfect storm of opportunity in our Industrial Impact investment focus. With their leading autonomy stack, they provide an essential solution for top-tier OEMs, like Doosan Bobcat," said Michael Dolbec, Momenta's Managing Partner.
Jerry O’Gorman, VP at Advantech IIOT division, stated, "We are pleased to support this investment in Agtonomy. Our leading role in edge and mobile computing gives us a deep appreciation for the engineering challenge of autonomous mobility solutions in environments such as agriculture. We look forward to collaborating with Agtonomy and co-creating with them and selected partners to help them scale in this critical space."
About Agtonomy:
Agtonomy, based in South San Francisco and Sonoma County, is a leading software and services company specializing in advanced autonomous and AI solutions for agriculture. The company focuses on addressing the pressing challenges of labor scarcity, sustainability, and shrinking profit margins faced by farmers. With strategic partnerships with renowned equipment OEMs, including Bobcat, Agtonomy embeds "smarts'' in tractors and implements, driving digital transformation and offering commercial-scale solutions. The accomplished team combines expertise in product development, high-tech innovation, and agriculture, ensuring the delivery of transformative solutions. For more information about Agtonomy, please visit www.agtonomy.com.
About Advantech:
Advantech has the corporate vision to "Enable an Intelligent Planet." The company is a global leader in IoT, intelligent systems, and embedded platforms. To embrace the trends of IoT, big data, and artificial intelligence, Advantech promotes IoT hardware and software solutions with the industrial IoT platform WISE-PaaS core to assist business partners and clients in connecting their industrial chains. Advantech is also working with business partners to co-create business ecosystems that accelerate the goal of industrial intelligence. For more information, please visit www.advantech.com.
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Momenta is the leading Digital Industry venture capital + growth firm accelerating deep tech innovators across energy, manufacturing, smart spaces, and supply chain. For over a decade, our team of deep industry operators have helped scale industry leaders and innovators via our award-winning executive search and strategic advisory teams.
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