MANY MINDEDBolt-on autonomy lets old tractors plant a crop by themselves
Sabanto, which retrofits existing tractors for autonomous work, has closed an oversubscribed Series B round on undisclosed terms. Leaps by Bayer led it, joined by Sustainable Forward Capital, InnoVenture Iowa, Fulcrum Global Capital, DCVC, and Yara. The company was founded by Craig Rupp, a former John Deere engineer who sold an earlier company to The Climate Corporation in 2014.
Rather than sell a new autonomous machine, Sabanto bolts a kit onto tractors farmers already own, cameras, obstacle-detection sensors, satellite navigation, robotics, and software, so they can seed, till, and aerate on their own. The kit currently works with John Deere's 5E, 5M, and 6E tractors and Kubota's M5 series, with deployments across the United States and in Australia. A partnership with Verdant Robotics lets its SharpShooter precision-application system run behind a Sabanto-equipped tractor.
The economics are the point. A single new large autonomous machine can cost at least half a million dollars, a Leaps executive said; retrofitting undercuts that sharply. One Kentucky farmer, Quint Pottinger of New Haven, pared his fleet down to a single 135-horsepower tractor and a 20-foot planter, cut his equipment capital outlay by about 70%, and planted his entire corn crop autonomously this year. One of Sabanto's largest customers runs 25 retrofitted tractors at once. Cheaper autonomy lowers the cost of working land for growers short on cash and labor, which over time feeds through to cheaper food.
Terms of the round were not disclosed. And a disclosure carried in the reporting: AgFunder, the publisher's parent company, is itself an investor in Verdant Robotics.
Source: AgFunder News