Small Robot Company has raised £4M in a successful equity crowdfunding campaign with Crowdcube to fund the delivery of ‘Per Plant Farming’ for arable crops. Charlotte Cunningham reports.
Over 2500 retail investors backed the campaign, with the initial target of £2M raised on the day of launch. The campaign then doubled the target, reaching the stretch ceiling of £4M and closing the campaign early, overfunding by 200%.
The company has now secured £11M in funding to date.
“This funding round is transformative to Small Robot Company,” said CEO and co-founder, Ben Scott-Robinson. “The 2600 investors have provided us with the resources to deliver on our promise, to both farmers and corporate customers. It’s proof, not only that Small Robot Company is technically capable of delivering the change that farmers need, but that there is overwhelming public and industry support for delivering our vision, and the need for per plant farming in the food system of tomorrow.”
The funding will finance SRC’s service for farmer and corporate customers with Per Plant data, and commercialisation of its Per Plant Action capability.
An exciting journey
President and co-founder Sam Watson Jones added: “At Small Robot Company, we are four years into an exciting journey. It has been four years of amazing technology achievements, but we are still right at the start of what we want to achieve as a commercial entity. We now begin moving from having working, unique and patented technology, to where we want to be, which is a large and profitable business having a huge impact on the way our food is produced.”
Small Robot Company’s mission is to maximise food production while reducing its cost on the environment. Using robotics and artificial intelligence, it has created an entirely new model for sustainable, efficient and profitable farming. Its farmbots Tom, Dick and Harry will plant, monitor and treat arable crops autonomously, with minimal waste.
Overfunded
The main focus of the extra funding will be accelerating AI modelling. At the end of last year, Small Robot Company took the strategic decision to focus on growing in house AI capabilities, regarding this as the area of biggest value and defensibility.
SRC has overfunded in four Crowdcube campaigns, raising £9.4M. Its two previous rounds closed early, over-subscribing by 274% and 298%. In the company’s last raise, it raised £1.1M in less than 48 hours via a private Crowdcube equity crowdfunding campaign, which was subsequently match-funded by the government Future Fund scheme, achieving £2.2M successful funding in total.
