What do you get when you mix a family of apple farmers, Cornell’s agri-tech vibes, and a college dropout with a vision? You get Orchard Robotics — a startup proving that AI isn’t just for chatbots and self-driving cars, it’s now helping farmers figure out exactly what’s growing in their fields.
Charlie Wu, the founder of Orchard Robotics, didn’t exactly plan to reinvent farming. But while studying computer science at Cornell (home to some of the world’s best fruit researchers), he had an “aha!” moment: even the biggest farms in America don’t really know what’s happening in their orchards day to day. Farmers were literally estimating yields and crop health by manually checking small patches of fruit — which is kind of like guessing your bank balance by peeking at just one ATM receipt.
Wu left Cornell, became a Thiel Fellow, and in 2022 launched Orchard Robotics. Fast forward to now, and the company just raised a $22 million Series A led by Quiet Capital and Shine Capital, with support from General Catalyst and Contrary.
So, how does it work? Orchard’s tiny camera mounts on tractors or farm vehicles, snapping ultra-HD pictures as they roll through rows of apple trees, grape vines, or even blueberry bushes. AI then steps in to analyze fruit size, color, and health, turning thousands of snapshots into actionable insights. Farmers can finally know which vines need extra love — whether that’s pruning, fertilizing, or preparing for harvest.
And it’s not stopping with apples. Orchard is expanding to cherries, strawberries, almonds, pistachios, citrus, and more. Basically, if it grows on a vine or a tree, Orchard wants in.
Of course, they’re not the only ones in this field (pun intended). Competitors like Bloomfield Robotics (snapped up by Kubota) and Green Atlas are chasing the same market. But Wu is thinking bigger. He doesn’t just want to give farmers data — he wants to build the operating system of the farm. Think Flock Safety but for agriculture: from “just collecting fruit snapshots” today to fully automating workflows tomorrow.
Wu admits the current fruit-and-veg data market is about $1.5 billion — but with AI-powered farm automation, the potential explodes far beyond that. His vision? A future where every farm runs on Orchard’s data-driven backbone.
Bottom line: Orchard Robotics is proving that the future of farming isn’t just greener — it’s smarter.
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