Farm
Tortuga rented out its robots as a service and was paid by the kilo for the fruit they picked.
A dated step forward on the record · Company-reported · Sets Tortuga harvesting robots's stage
What the source says
“getting paid by the kilo for the produce that its robots pick.”
What it means
Tortuga harvesting robots, from Tortuga AgTech (now owned by Oishii), is at stage 4 of 5 on our ladder: paying customers. This event is one of the milestones that placed it there. This line rests on the company's own announcement; no regulator, customer or independent report confirms it in our sources yet.
Human help: The maker hasn't said whether people help it remotely.
More on Tortuga harvesting robots
- Oishii raised $150 million. It said harvesting robots, added through the Tortuga deal, help it grow strawberries more consistently.
- At the time of the sale, Tortuga's commercial harvesting fleet was 150 robots.
- Oishii, an indoor strawberry grower, bought Tortuga's intellectual property, other assets and some of its engineers. The price was not disclosed.
- Tortuga won the Ag Robot of the Year award from the trade magazine Future Farming.
- Tortuga raised a $20 million Series A round led by the investor Lewis & Clark AgriFood.