Agritech Robotics Startup TartanSense Raises $5 Million In Series A

Bangalore-based Agritech robotics startup -- TartanSense has raised $5 million in Series A funding. The round was led by FMC Ventures and Omnivore, with participation from existing investor Blume Ventures. 

Founded in 2015 by Jaisimha Rao, an alumnus of Carnegie Mellon University, TartanSense builds small agricultural robots equipped with AI-assisted computer vision to help small farms reduce their expenditures and improve their incomes.

"Our mission is to make smallholder farmers wealthier by shipping monetisable robots. TartanSense will have the world's largest fleet of agriculture robots in the next 18 months. We are grateful to have amazing investors like FMC Ventures, Omnivore, and Blume Ventures backing us in our passion to empower farmers," said Jaisimha Rao, Founder, TartanSense.

TartanSense is helping smallholder farmers who struggle with low yields, primarily driven by two reasons - poor chemical spraying techniques and unreliable farm labour. TartanSense's robots are an affordable precision agriculture solution for all major farming activities - sowing, spraying, weeding, and harvesting - which simultaneously drive down cultivation costs while improving crop yields.

Amar Singh, Managing Director at FMC Ventures, remarked, "TartanSense is a pioneer in ground-based precision spraying in India. With growers' interest in mind, it has developed a unique, low-cost precision application technology with a very high level of accuracy. FMC Ventures is excited to support TartanSense as they combine artificial intelligence and robotics to improve how growers apply crop inputs."

This funding round brings the total funds raised by the company to $7 million, after raising a $2 million seed round in March 2019.