Farmhand Automation, a Biddeford-based startup developing robotic and AI tools for small-scale farms, has raised $290,000 ahead of its first fully autonomous trials with farmers.
The company, which employs three full-timers and a part-timer, has developed an autonomous micro tractor that will help farmers with sustainable weed control and soil health. Alex Jones, who founded the company in 2019, said automated planting is also on the horizon.
“Our focus is to increase the utility of robotics and automation in agriculture with low costs to farmers,” Jones told Maine Startups Insider.
Jones, who moved back to Maine in 2019 after spending a few years on the West Coast working in the fields of robotics and AI, was inspired to create the company to help small-scale farmers become more efficient and able to serve more of their local population.
“Farmhand Automation is translating state-of-the-art robotics into affordable automation to help small-scale farmers bring the local food revolution into the 21st century,” Jones told MSI in a Founder Forum interview published in February 2020.
The startup is launching its first two pilots this summer with Broadturn Farm in Scarborough and Riverside Farm in North Yarmouth. Jones said this season is focused on safety testing the micro tractor and launching the company brand. The company will announce an open beta program for farmers across the country in late summer, he said.
This isn’t Jones’ first attempt at leveraging technology to help local farms. Before departing for the West Coast, he was product manager at Forager, the local software startup that’s developed a platform to help connect local farms with local groceries, and previously founded a company in the Portland area that built an IoT device to help monitor bee hives.
“Sustainable local farming is fraught with labor and scaling challenges that hold back the local food movement,” Jones told MSI this week. “To date, less than 10% of the food Americans eat is considered ‘local,’ while the average burnout rate for young people getting into farming is three years. Pair that with an aging farming population, especially in Maine, and we can begin to see why local food has so many challenges breaking that 10% food share. At Farmhand Automation, we wholeheartedly believe that farmers know how to farm and if we want to see the local food economy grow within our current structure, local farmers need access to low-cost mechanization to be able to scale, serve larger portions of their community, and expand into new markets.”
The company raised the $290,000 in pre-seed capital last year from independent investors using SAFE agreements, which stands for Simple Agreement for Future Equity) and is an agreement that provides the investor rights to future equity in the company. SAFE agreement are similar to warrants and convertible debt, except without determining a specific price per share at the time of the initial investment. Jones said 60% of the money was raised from Maine investors.
This funding is on top of a $75,000 grant the company received in October 2020 from the Maine Technology Institute and $200,000 in exploratory capital and grants the company raised in 2019.
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