SwarmFarm raises $12 million to help bridge the gap between farmers and autonomous technology

Queensland agtech startup SwarmFarm Robotics has finalised a $12 million Series A round led by Conexus Venture Capital. The Canadian firm is joined by Tribe Global Ventures, Access Capital, Tenacious Ventures and GrainInnovate.

This follows an $856,000 grant from the Northern Australia Development Program back in 2022, as well as a $4.5 million raise in 2020.

Launched in 2012, SwarmFarm specialises in autonomous robot farming equipment that is built on a platform designed ‘for farmers, by farmers’. It combines an autonomous platform called SwarmBot with its own operating system, SwarmConnect. This allows developers to create applications for the platform itself to be used by farmers.

This open platform also means that speciality robotics solutions for different agricultural needs can be developed to work with SwarmFarm’s driverless technology.

As of 2022, the company’s SwarmBots had been deployed across 1.3 acres of commercial land and had been operating for more than 64,000 hours.

According to SwarmFarm, its system also helped reduce pesticide inputs by roughly 780 tonnes.

“There is enormous demand for autonomy in agriculture, but today, most solutions unlock minimal potential,” SwarmFarm CEO Andrew Bate said in a statement.

“The current equipment providers believe that farmers just want to be plucked from the cab or replaced by robotic arms. We believe that farmers want more.

“They want a technology ecosystem built to address the issues in their locality, a farm-centric system that leaves the lowest possible footprint on their fields, helping them do more with less. They want integrated autonomy, so that’s what we’re building.”

Despite being around for more than a decade, SwamFarm remains firmly a rural startup based out of Gindie in Queensland. This startup trend that pivots away from cities is something that we as well as Fishburners believe we’ll continue to see throughout 2023 and beyond.

It was always an aim for the team to create a platform that developers could use to build software and other solutions that could be integrated with small autonomous robots, bridging the gap between the land and technology. And this raise further solidifies the company’s ability to scale this dream.

“We envision a future where the most promising minds in technology are encouraged to turn toward solving the challenges faced by modern agriculture,” Bate said.

“We also believe in a future where there is no longer such a severe distinction between farmers and technologists, but rather a new breed of farmer-technologists. This funding helps us to move toward that future by meeting more of the global demand for our product and facilitating the growth of our SwarmConnect network of developers.”