Arugga AI Farming

growth-positive

Israeli startup Arugga has signed an agreement with Costa Group, Australias leading grower of hydroponic glasshouse tomatoes, to deploy its pollination robots across 10 hectares of Costas glasshouse tomato crop. Arugga develops robotic solutions for treating and monitoring individual plants in greenhouses, with a focus on robotic pollination. The company aims to help growers solve challenges related to more efficient pollination and reduced labor costs, while reducing the spread of viruses with its non-contact solutions. The partnership with Costa Group is seen as a significant step in providing innovative technological solutions for the global market of greenhouse agriculture. Arugga is grateful for Costa Groups early belief in their technology and looks forward to expanding collaboration.

growth-positive

Israeli startup Arugga has completed a $4 million pre-A series funding round led by Cresson and with participation by Smart Agro. Arugga is developing an autonomous robot for treating and monitoring individual plants in greenhouses. The company is launching its first module, a robotic pollinator, to address the market segment of greenhouse-grown tomatoes. The robot, named TRATA, uses cameras and AI-based computer vision to recognize flowers ready for pollination and applies an air-pressure mechanism to pollinate the selected flower. Arugga aims to replace manual labor and bumblebees as pollination solutions, solving sensitivity to environmental conditions and pesticides. The company plans to expand its robotic platforms to include pest and disease detection, yield prediction, and pruning. Smart Agro, an agri-tech R&D partnership, invested $500,000 in Aruggas funding round.

growth-positive

The World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit has selected 15 ag tech start-ups that have the potential to disrupt agriculture. These start-ups cover a range of technologies, including smart robotics, biotech, solar research, and supply chain tracking. The summit, which will be held in San Francisco in March, aims to showcase these innovative solutions. The selected start-ups include Agragene, AgNext Technologies, Agrynex, AgTrace, Arugga AI Farming, Augmenta, Dot Farm Solutions, Farmbot, G2V Optics, MoA Technology, ONO Exponential Farming, Phylagen, Phytoform Labs, Stable, and Varigen Biosciences. The full program and registration information can be found on the World Agri-Tech website.