Strawberries are the most popular berry in the United States for both consumers and farmers. They are also some of the most pesticide fruits and constantly top the environmental working group List “Dirty Dozens” of the most contaminated products.
Tric roboticsSan Luis Obispo, California, thinks it can help strawberry farmers reduce chemical use with the help of UV light and robots.
The startup has built a fleet of robots that use UV-C-light, a shape of ultraviolet light, which is mostly blocked by the Earth’s atmosphere, to kill bacteria and damage plague populations. The tractor-size autonomous robots can treat up to 100 acres and also use vacuums designed to suck bug residues without injuring crops.
The company manages its robots at Farms at night as a service, as supposedly selling them directly to farmers, because, although harder to scale, this model seemed like the right one to start traction quickly, Adam Stager, the co -founder and general manager of TRIC, told Techcrunch.
“We worked a lot with the farmers to understand the right way to launch the technology and what was the right business model,” Stager said. “We have learned that many farmers pay for control of pest diseases as a service, so they have a company to enter and make the splash. And what we have done is just to replace that as a service model.”
While Stager said the company was very focused on what farmers want, not always so. In fact, Tric didn’t even focus on agriculture to get started.
Stager launched the company in 2017 after completing his doctorate in robotics. The company was initially centered on 3D printed robots for SWAT teams. In 2020, Stager decided to pivot into an area, which he thought it would have more impact and began to focus on agriculture.
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“I just wanted to answer the question if you died tomorrow would you be happy about what you have done in your life?” Stager said. “I was like, well, I really need to do something effective that can help a lot of people feel value for myself. I have stumbled a little agriculture during that trip, [and realized] This is a place where we can impact so many people, almost everyone. ”
Stager has reached the US Departmental Agriculture (USDA) to see if there is any technology he is working on, that he could help trade, knowing from his doctoral program that a lot of great technology never leaves the lab.
He was connected to a USDA program that brings people like Stager and scientists who haven’t traded their work together. This disclosure connected him to the UV luminous technology, which became the basis for the TRIC robotics.
“We loaded two robots we build in my garage on the SUV,” Stager said of him and co -founder Vishnu Somasundaram. “We had two relationships that the USDA helped us build with farmers who were ready to give us only a small land in 2021 and that really is the beginning when this company began. It was an overseas journey from AirbnB surfing for eight months, where we deployed two robots and receiving these wonderful data with these farmers.”
Now, the company, which also counts Ryan Berard as its third co -founder, works with four large strawberry producers, deployed nine robots, and has three more robots on the way.
Tric Robotics recently raised a seed of $ 5.5 million led by version one adventure with participation from Garage Capital, Todd and Rahul Capital, and Lucas Venture Group, among other investment companies, and individual angels.
The company plans to put the money to continue to build its fleet of autonomous robots and Tric later wants to also relocate into other types of crops.
“I think it will be true, a truly bright future for [agriculture] Technique, “Stager said.” I just think people should know that things really go in a great direction, and there are really many exciting things. ”
