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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

equity crowdfunding

Small Robot Company Gets £200,000 VC Investment, Surpasses Equity Crowdfunding Goal

Small Robot Company, which makes precision agricultural robots, confirmed today via email that 7percent Ventures has invested £200,000 pounds (~$259,000 USD) in the company and is now Small Robot’s lead investor.

Small Robot is running its equity crowdfunding on CrowdCube, and has raised £2,003,880 ($2,596,000 USD) from 1670 investors so far. What we don’t know right now is whether 7percent’s money is included among that tally, or if it’s a separate investment. We’ve reached out to Small Robot to clarify.

Regardless, Small Robot has far surpassed its initial £700,000 fundraising target, and the campaign still has one day left to attract new investors. Advertising 7percent’s participation could be a way to goose last minute money from those on the fence or considering investing even more.

Small Robot makes autonomous robots for precision farming, and its robotic roster includes Tom, which maps the farm and Dick, which zaps weeds with electricity to kill them. Eventually they’ll add Harry, a no-till drilling robot. The Tom robot is currently in working trials on 20 farms across the UK.

This is the second equity crowdfunding campaign for Small Robot. The company crowdfunded £1.2 million ($1.6 million) in 2018, and has also received £1.4 million ($1.8 million) in non-equity funding from a UK government innovation fund.

When I spoke with Small Robot Company Co-Founder, Sam Watson Jones, last month, he said the company was going the equity crowdfunding route because there weren’t very many European early stage VCs that would fund companies still developing their product. Evidently Watson Jones found one.

As I also noted back in January, Small Robot Company is going to have to bulk up its warchest because there is some well-funded competition in the precision ag robot space. Farmwise raised $14.5 million and French company Naïo raised more than $15 million for their respective robotic weed killers.

But it’s not all just money, and with today’s investment from 7percent, Small Robot Company may also get some VC-backed connections and support that the crowd just can’t offer.

The UK’s Small Robot Company Equity Crowdfunds its Precision Ag Robots

Based in the UK, the Small Robot Company is actually making its second trip to the crowd for money, and launched its second such campaign earlier this week on CrowdCube.

Equity crowdfunding is a trend we’re watching closely this year. That’s where instead of traditional venture capital, startups let everyday people (with certain restrictions) invest in and receive an actual piece of the company.

Small Robot makes precision agriculture robots that the company hopes will eventually move farmers away from broad chemical spraying of crops and monoculture of plant species in fields. Small Robot has a multi-part, autonomous robot solution it’s building that includes:

  • Tom uses cameras and computer vision to precisely map a field of its plants and weeds
  • Wilma is the AI that analyzes those images to gather per-plant intelligence and weed identification
  • Dick is an autonomous weed zapper that is armed with an electric wand and information from Wilma to precisely electrocute individual weed without the need for chemicals
  • The company will eventually add a third robot, Harry, to its lineup that will do no-till drilling.

Small Robot’s “Tom” robots are currently in the working prototype phase, and in use on 20 farms in the UK. The company aims to ramp up production and manufacturing this year and go live on more farms by the end of 2020.

I spoke with Sam Watson Jones, Co-founder, Small Robot Company by phone this week, and he said his ultimate goal is to empower farms with precision agriculture to such a degree that it’s done on a plant-by-plant level. Farmers will know where each individual seed is planted and automate custom care for each plant as it grows. This means reducing fertilizer use, and planting a variety of crops next to each other to limit the spread of crop disease, maintain nitrogen levels and pollinate more efficiently.

To help it get there, Small Robot is turning to the crowd, again. Previously the company received £1.4 million in non-equity funding from a UK government innovation fund, and in 2018 raised £1.2 million in equity crowdfunding through the CrowdCube platform.

On Monday of this week, Small Robot kicked off its second CrowdCube campaign and has already met its goal of raising £700,000. I asked Watson why his company didn’t go with the traditional VC route this time.

“VCs are a bit different in the UK,” he said, “There are very few early stage VCs to fund stuff that requires more development. We knew we had a load of farmers who were excited about what we could develop. ” Crowdfunding, Watson said “allowed us to get angels and people who would put ten quid in. It’s been a good forum for us to capitalize on the branding and PR.”

As with any investment, there are risks involved, and given that this crowdfunding is happening in the UK, there are restrictions around where people can invest from and how much. Check the campaign’s details for more information.

Small Robot Company is actually the second robotics company we’ve covered that has gone the equity crowdfunding app. On the other end of the meal journey is Miso Robotics, the maker of Flippy, which is using SeedInvest to try and raise a $30 million Series C round.

Small Robot will definitely need to beef up its warchest as it looks to expand outside the UK. Other players in the autonomous precision ag and weed-killing robot space include Australia’s Agerris, which raised $6.5 million (AUSD) last year, and U.S.-based Farmwise, which raised $14.5 million in 2019 as well.

For now though, Small Robot Company’s pitch to big crowds for tiny agriculture seems to be attracting big dollars.

Miso Robotics Aims to Equity Crowdfund $30 Million

Miso Robotics, creator of Flippy the burger grilling robot, announced today that it is looking to raise a $30 million through equity crowdfunding for its next round of financing. The company’s last round was a $10 million Series B back in February of 2018, and Miso has raised nearly $15 million in total to date.

By going the crowdfunding route, individuals can invest in and receive actual equity in Miso Robotics. As with any investment, there is risk involved and no guarantee of financial return. Miso is using SeedInvest’s (by Circle) equity crowdfunding platform, along Wavemaker Labs, to execute the fundraise.

Miso is most famous for its Flippy robot, an articulating arm that can grill burgers as well as fry french fries, tater tots and chicken tenders. Flippy’s first gig was with fast casual chain CaliBurger, and additional robots have since gone on to work at LA Dodgers Stadium and Arizona Diamondbacks Chase Field.

On the crowdfunding page, the company says that it has a pre-money valuation of $80 million and that individuals looking to buy in must make a $1,500 minimum investment. Also, in a move that seems somewhat comedic, given the money involved, the company lists perks available for different investment tiers. A $3,000 investment gets you a Miso Robotics hat and a voucher for 5 free CaliBurgers. Invest $250,000 or more and you get “10 Miso Robotics hats and voucher for 100 free CaliBurgers, 1 PopID facial recognition scanner installed at your home or place of business, Trip to Los Angeles for 4 people to a regular season LA Dodgers game.” Why someone would want a facial recognition scanner meant for restaurant loyalty programs in their house, I’m not sure.

The fact that Miso is crowdfunding its next round is made all the more intriguing since we learned last month that Miso Robotics Co-Founder and CEO, Dave Zito, as well as COO, Melissa Hampton Burghardt, were no longer with the company. Reasons for their departure were not given. However Zito sent us a statement at that time saying he was still the company’s largest shareholder.

Equity crowdfunding seems to be more of a thing nowadays, with companies like GOffee and GoSun both running such campaigns. But we are curious as to why a company with Miso Robotics’ pedigree would go down the equity crowdfunding path, given the complexity of its technology and earlier fundraising achievements.

With the campaign officially launched, we’ll see if everyday investors will flip over Flippy.