With top-tier tech talent and a deep farming heritage, Seattle and the broader Pacific Northwest are emerging as one of the country’s key hubs for agriculture technology.
The region sits among the nation’s top five agtech ecosystems, said Erik Benson, managing director at Voyager Capital, which hosted its first-ever Agtech CEO Summit this week in Seattle.
Benson — who grew up on a 2,000-acre farm an hour north of Seattle — cited strengths in robotics, AI, and hardware engineering from institutions like the University of Washington and a strong base of innovative farmers in Eastern Washington and Oregon.
Benson identified three major inflection points for the agtech sector broadly:
- The emergence of success stories with billion-dollar outcomes.
- A new generation of tech-savvy farmers more open to adopting technology.
- A shift from using chemicals in agriculture to leveraging physics, robotics, and AI for greater sustainability and productivity.
After several years of steady growth, investments in agtech startups have fallen since a peak in 2021 ($14 billion across 1,331 deals), with $6.1 billion deployed across 839 deals last year, according to PitchBook.
Despite fluctuations in global venture funding, Benson remains bullish about the sector. The CEOs attending his firm’s event this week have raised more than $1 billion collectively.
He said about 20% of Voyager’s most recent fund went to agtech startups, including four companies in the Pacific Northwest.
One of those is Carbon Robotics, a Seattle-based startup that helps farmers eliminate weeds without the use of herbicides. The company, ranked No. 10 on the GeekWire 200 list of top Pacific Northwest startups, has raised $157 million since launching in 2018 and recently rolled out a self-driving platform for tractors.
Carbon Robotics CEO Paul Mikesell, a Seattle software veteran and UW grad, said advances in AI and affordable electronics are driving a “robotic revolution.”
“Agriculture and agtech are at the forefront of that because it’s just so ripe for disruption,” he said.
Read on for a snapshot of agtech companies in the Seattle area and across the state of Washington. Email us at [email protected] to let us know if we’re missing any companies.
Adaptive Symbiotic Technologies
Founded: 2008
CEO: Rusty Rodriguez
The pitch: Researches and develops symbiotic plant microbes as agricultural crop treatments for farmers.
Aigen
Founded: 2021
CEO: Kenny Lee
The pitch: Manufactures solar-powered robots that roam farms and pluck weeds from the soil, reducing the need for pesticides and manual labor.
GeekWire 200 ranking: No. 117
Related coverage: With fresh funding, agtech startup Aigen ramps up production of solar-powered farm robots
Carbon Robotics
Founded: 2018
CEO: Paul Mikesell
The pitch: Machinery that uses AI and computer vision to detect plants in fields and eliminate weeds with lasers.
GeekWire 200 ranking: No. 10
Related coverage: Carbon Robotics unveils ‘AutoTractor,’ a self-driving platform to boost productivity on farms
Compass Reg
Founded: 2023
CEO: Eric Carnell
The pitch: Helps agriculture companies track and execute regulatory-related work.
FarmHQ
Founded: 2020
CEO: David Wallace
The pitch: Technology and services for farms that use center pivot irrigation.
Related coverage: Agtech startup launched by brothers in rural Washington raises cash to grow its irrigation tech
FruitScout
Founded: 2020
CEO: Matt King
The pitch: Industrial computer vision for commercial agriculture, focused on agave, apples, and grapes.
Ganaz
Founded: 2017
CEO: Hannah Freeman
The pitch: Software to help food processing and agriculture companies manage HR, communication, payment, and more.
Related coverage: Ganaz raises $7M for agriculture workforce software, will expand with new financial tools
innov8.ag
Founded: 2019
CEO: Steve Mantle
The pitch: Helps farmers use data to draw insights on labor, inventory, traceability, crop yield, and more.
Related coverage: Planting the seeds of digital agriculture: Startup bets the farm on Microsoft’s new ag tech platform
IUNU
Founded: 2013
CEO: Adam Greenberg
The pitch: Uses AI and machine vision to monitor greenhouse efficiency.
GeekWire 200 ranking: No. 38
Related coverage: AI for greenhouses: Seattle startup IUNU raises $20M for tech that monitors plants
Koidra
Founded: 2020
CEO: Kenneth Tran
The pitch: Smart greenhouse control with AI.
Related coverage: How a former Microsoft researcher used AI to grow award-winning lettuce from 5,000 miles away
Loftus Labs
Founded: 2020
CEO: Patrick Smith
The pitch: Provides data analytics, engineering, and data science to agriculture companies.
Orchard Robotics
Founded: 2022
CEO: Charlie Wu
The pitch: Uses artificial intelligence to deliver precise data on farm operations.
Related coverage: Orchard Robotics, an agtech startup using AI to solve farming’s data problem, raises $22M
Pollen Systems
Founded: 2018
CEO: Keith McCall
The pitch: Advanced agricultural analytics to help farmers manage crop growth and vitality.
Related coverage: Pollen Systems raises $2.4M and expands global reach of its crop analysis platform
Qualterra
Founded: 2011
CEO: Mike Werner
The pitch: Converts crop and forestry wastes debris into biochar.
Related coverage: Qualterra raises $4.5M to turn organic waste into carbon-trapping, crop-boosting biochar
Skysense
Founded: 2020
CEO: Justin Clune
The pitch: Uses drones to help farmers spot problems on the farm.
Strella
Founded: 2019
CEO: Katherine Sizov
The pitch: Predicts produce shelf life to reduce food waste and improve quality.
Related coverage: Elevator Pitch winner Strella Biotechnology has a ripe idea for solving major food waste problem
TerraClear
Founded: 2017
CEO: Devin Lammers
The pitch: Rock-mapping and picking technology solutions to simplify the task of removing large rocks from fields.
GeekWire 200 ranking: No. 188
Related coverage: Ag-tech startup TerraClear raises $15M to grow its end-to-end solution for ridding fields of rocks
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