Burro has been on our radar since early 2020, when the company (then Augean) participated in a TechCrunch Robotics presentation. The Philadelphia-based company has actually been around since 2017, but it’s been the last few years that have really seen its agricultural technology offerings take off.
Naturally, these successes coincided with the pandemic and resulting labor crises that accelerated much of the field of agricultural robotics. Over the past four years, many startups have progressed from early pilots to real-world use.
to donkeyThis equates to 300 of its robotic systems currently operating in fields and nurseries, primarily in the United States (along with select customers in Australia and New Zealand). All told, the startup says it has achieved more than 300,000 hours in the field, with 75,000 miles covered independently through its commercial customers. This actually means they are found on real farms.
Burro is also working to increase those numbers with a new fundraising round. The company announced today that it has raised a healthy $24 million Series B round, co-led by Catalyst Investors and Translink Capital. The two companies will also bring their partners to Burro’s board of directors.
“We will primarily use this round of funding for three things,” Burro CEO Charlie Andersen tells TechCrunch. “First, at scale. Scaling for us has two definitions. One, growing revenues faster than costs, and two, running production/shipping and leaving it running (i.e. producing, shipping, constantly selling and enabling customers to use our product). Second, we scale product teams and our engineering to build new products and features to respond to customer demand.Third, we are also expanding our sales, go-to-market and customer success teams.
This news also finds the company launching a new addition to its line of self-driving agricultural vehicles. The adorable Burro Grande is – as the name suggests – a big new member of the family. This vehicle is capable of hauling payloads weighing up to 1,500 pounds and towing other vehicles weighing up to 5,000 pounds.
The company says the larger version of the system was one of its most requested features. The Grande finds Burro moving into a category dominated by John Deere, where the tractor giant has made several high-profile acquisitions.
“In simple terms, donkey Grande Akbar “Buru,” Andersen says. “Our essence donkey It is a “people scale” (holds 500 lbs and tows up to 2,000 lbs). this donkey The Grande is “pallet scale,” meaning it can hold 1,500 pounds and tow 5,000 pounds. donkey Grande, includes many safety features, including 3D LIDAR, and all donkey Grandes come with donkey OS software version 5.0 which includes the Lidar-based SLAM algorithm, which enables GPS navigation.
Grande can be ordered starting today. Shipping is scheduled to begin later this quarter.