Kubota Corporation (Head Office: Naniwa-Ku, Osaka, Japan; President and Representative Director: Yuichi Kitao; hereinafter “Kubota”) has invested in Bloomfield Robotics, Inc. (hereinafter “Bloomfield”), a US startup company that uses image analysis technology and AI to assess plant growth and detect pests on grape, blueberry, and other tree crops.
1. Background and Objectives
- Kubota has been building alliances with various startups and other companies for the purpose of delivering solutions to enhance the efficiency and productivity of tree crops farming.
- The services provided by Bloomfield use AI to analyze and assess image data of tree crops in fields taken with specialized proprietary cameras and propose optimal farming methods.
- The Bloomfield cameras can be mounted on any vehicle that can be operated on these farms to collect image data on crop conditions such as the color, maturity, size of fruits and leaves during operation. AI processes, analyzes, and assesses such image data to propose anti-pest measures and the optimal time to harvest crops.
- The short-term performance assessment from data collection (image capture) through proposal offered by these services enables tree crop farmers to take timely actions based on pest detection and yield estimation at an early stage, greatly helping tree crop farmers to improve yields and reduce costs.
- Kubota will promote the transition to smart agriculture on tree crop farms by building an alliance with Bloomfield through this investment.
- This investment was made possible through collaboration with the THRIVE Accelerator Program, a startup accelerator program operated by SVG Ventures in which Kubota participates, and this investment in Bloomfield is a joint investment with SVG Ventures.
2. About Bloomfield Robotics, Inc.
3. Reference
Participation in a US Accelerator Program
https://www.kubota.com/news/2019/20191211.html
