One of the world's largest strawberry producers has begun using robots for harvesting

In early July 2021 robotic startup , Traptic announced the start of the commercial introduction of its mobile robot strawberry harvest. One of the world's largest strawberry producers Blazer-Wilkinson began using the development of Traptic in June 2021, and the system works in tandem with people picking strawberries.

The use of Traptic robotics followed a 2020 pilot project, when many agricultural companies needed help in the face of a shortage of employees associated with the pandemic. However, even before COVID-19, labor shortages led to huge crop losses. According to Traptic, about 10% of strawberries rotted directly on the bushes, which resulted in annual losses of up to $300 million. During the pandemic, there was an even greater deficit, since foreigners involved in collecting work were limited in movement.

One of the world's largest strawberry producers, Blazer-Wilkinson began using robots to harvest

Traptic was able to accelerate its work on a strawberry collection robot due to $5 million raised at the end of 2019 as part of the Series A investment round from Collaborative Fund, Homebrew Ventures and K9 Ventures.

We used recent funding to launch a successful pilot project. To design and build our industrial-scale machine and begin our first paid deployment, "said Lewis Anderson, co-founder and CEO of Traptic, in an interview with TechCrunch.

The last round of funding followed the $3 million and 400 thousand collected in 2017 in 2016. In total, Traptic raised $8.4 million.^[1]

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