Seattle-area agtech startup Aigen is aiming to scale up production of its weed-destroying robots and broaden its footprint on farms across the U.S.
The company on Thursday revealed the investors in its new $12 million investment round. ReGen Ventures led the round; NEA, Cleveland Avenue, Incite, and Susquehanna Private Equity Investments LLLP also invested.
GeekWire previously reported the funding last month.
Aigen said it will use the fresh cash to ramp up production of its solar-powered robots that roam farms and pluck weeds from the soil, reducing the need for pesticides and manual labor.
The company plans to build 70 robots early next year out of a new 7,500 square-foot R&D and production facility in Redmond, Wash.
Kenny Lee, co-founder and CEO, said the biggest challenge the company faces is providing immediate value to farmers.
Aigen’s weed-slashing application helps solve that need — and it’s a gateway to other services, Lee said.
“The exciting part is, what are the additional payloads you can build on top of the robot as we’re being deployed onto the farm? And what are the data that can be collected using cameras and sensors that can be useful for the farmers?” he said. “That is a real potential of the technology platform that we’re building.”
Aigen makes money by charging an acreage fee and plans to offer additional services based on data it collects.
The 23-person company mainly operates in parts of the Midwest. It plans to open a new hub in Fargo, N.D., to be closer to customers.
Aigen said it is using AI to help speed up data collection and analysis. It’s also using generative AI to train models to better identify weeds.
Lee has a background in cybersecurity and co-founded a startup called Weblife.io that was acquired in 2017. Aigen co-founder Rich Wurden is a former senior engineer at Seattle electric boat company Pure Watercraft and mechanical engineer at Tesla. The duo met in a climate-focused group chat on Slack that helps engineers pivot their careers to address climate issues.
Aigen is part of a group of Seattle startups using AI to automate farming tasks such as weed control, fertilization, field analysis, and more. Other companies include Carbon Robotics, which also builds robots to zap weeds, and TerraClear, which uses machine learning and hardware to remove rocks from fields.
Aigen raised a $4 million seed round in 2022.
