Kubota and wine producer Oeneo together invest in Bloomfield Robotics. Based in Pittsburgh, PA USA, this company develops AI-driven plant imaging technology for use in specialty crops. The investments by Kubota and Oeneo will reinforce Bloomfield’s commitment to partner with global players in strategic markets.
Kubota is renewing its investment and strengthening its commitment to Bloomfield. The aim of this deepened relationship with Bloomfield is to ensure that each farm vehicle becomes a platform for continuous data collection to assess both the health and performance of each plant in the specialty crop sector.
One of Kubota’s global initiatives is to develop solutions that enhance productivity and food safety. In this, this investment reflects Kubota’s confidence in Bloomfield’s ability to provide plant-level insights to help growers make more informed management decisions.
“Through partnership between Kubota and Bloomfield, we believe that we can provide more precise and efficient farm operations and create new values for farmers by collaborating with some of both companies’ technology, products and services,” remarks Koji Hasegawa, Kubota Corporation, GM of Innovation Center Silicon Valley.
Promising for the wine industry
Oeneo’s investment is driven by how this particularly powerful technology is indeed promising for the wine industry. The investment provides Bloomfield with direct access to Oeneo’s 10,000 customers in the wine industry worldwide. Oeneo’s deep relationships with its customers will enhance Bloomfield’s ability to provide specific analysis for each wine region and grape variety.
“This partnership with Bloomfield is aligned with Oeneo’s development strategy to build a complete and innovative offer for winegrowers. It will allow us to accelerate our own initiatives, in particular in response to the impacts of climate change. In the vineyard, we want to offer our clients new indicators, enabling them to make the most relevant decisions possible, to secure the quality and quantity of the wine production. These developments will be carried out jointly with the Vivelys teams,” explains Dominique Tourneix, CEO of the Oeneo Group.
“Our partnerships with Kubota and Oeneo are examples of how we want to service the entire specialty crop supply chain by serving our primary customer: the grower. We believe that by providing actionable, plant-level information to growers that can be used to make more informed management decisions, then we can create greater connectivity within the supply chain and deliver more value to each partner that is responsible for managing our food system,” says Mark DeSantis, Bloomfield Robotics, CEO.
Additional institutional investments from The Yield Lab Asia Pacific, WGD Opportunity Fund / WGD Capital, Pasudeco & Co. and M7 Ace NEO, among other investors will allow the company to grow the team, deploy the technology to more customers and continue to develop the technology to serve the entire specialty crop industry.
