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§ Private Profile · Philadelphia, PA, USA
Autonomous robotics company automating outdoor tasks for agriculture and various outdoor operations, focused on collaborative automation.
Based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Burro develops fully autonomous robots designed to assist agricultural operations by automating labor-intensive outdoor tasks such as towing, mowing, spraying, and logistics. The company provides a modular, collaborative robotics platform equipped with LiDAR, cameras, and safety features that operates alongside human workers in commercial vineyards, nurseries, and greenhouses. To date, the enterprise has successfully deployed more than 500 robots across five continents, collectively accumulating over 500,000 autonomous operational hours in the field. The robotics manufacturer has secured financial backing from notable venture capital investors to fund its ongoing growth, including F-Prime Capital, Sanjay Aggarwal, and Betsy Mulé. Beyond traditional agriculture, the firm is currently expanding its autonomous logistics technology into adjacent industrial sectors, including solar site vegetation management, intermodal airport operations, and security. Burro was founded in 2017 by Charlie Andersen and Vibhor Sood.
Burro has raised $37.0M across 3 funding rounds.
Burro has raised $37.0M in total across 3 funding rounds.
Burro is an agtech company developing autonomous mobile robots that assist farm workers with labor-intensive tasks like towing, hauling materials, and harvest assistance in nurseries, vineyards, berries, greenhouses, and tree fruit operations.[1][2][5] It serves growers facing acute labor shortages due to rising costs, aging workforces, and unreliable programs like H-2A, solving these by amplifying human productivity through collaborative robots that operate alongside people using machine learning and path planning.[1][2][4][5] Formerly Augean Robotics, Burro raised a $24M Series B in early 2024 and has deployed robots accumulating thousands of autonomous hours and miles, demonstrating strong growth momentum in a market shifting toward AI-driven autonomy.[1][3][5]
Founded in 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (with an additional site in Visalia, California), Burro emerged from the need to address farming's labor crisis, starting as Augean Robotics before rebranding.[1][2][3][5] Key leaders include CEO Charles Andersen, CTO Terry Scott, Product lead Moira Doherty (ex-Motional, iRobot, Harvard-trained), and engineer Vibhor Sood (ex-Lehigh Vader Labs, Samsung), who developed core computer-vision tech for outdoor localization.[2][3] Early traction came from direct field work with customers since 2017, evolving from basic autonomous helpers to a full platform including models like Burro (berries/vineyards), Verde (greenhouses), and Grande (nurseries), culminating in the 2024 Series B funding to scale from "people to pallet" operations.[3][5]
Burro rides the wave of AI-powered autonomous ground robots transforming agriculture amid global labor shortages, with market trends favoring advancements in sensing, navigation, harvesting, and crop monitoring—especially in Asia-Pacific leaders like China and Japan, but expanding to U.S. nurseries and vineyards.[1] Timing aligns with rising production costs (e.g., delayed workers, wage hikes) and H-2A shifts, positioning Burro to reduce downtime and accidents while streamlining operations for scalable farms.[1][5] It influences the ecosystem by fostering human-robot collaboration as a bridge to full autonomy, attracting investment (e.g., $24M Series B) and competing in a segment including robotic sprayers and tractors, ultimately democratizing agtech for mid-sized growers.[1][3]
Burro is poised to expand its fleet ecosystem with "Boss" and new models, targeting pallet-scale autonomy amid accelerating AI trends in ag robotics.[3][5] Labor pressures and precision ag demand will propel growth, potentially through partnerships and global scaling, evolving its role from assist bots to foundational platforms in a fully autonomous farming future—echoing its Wall-E-inspired mission to make labor woes history.[2]
Burro has raised $37.0M across 3 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $24.0M Series B in January 2024.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 1, 2024 | $24M Series B | Brian Rich, KAZ Kikuchi | Flybridge Capital Partners, Grit Ventures, Andrew Wheeler, Momenta Ventures, Ravelin Capital, Toyota Ventures, Village Global, Archie Burgess, Sanjeev Krishnan | Announced |
| Sep 1, 2021 | $11M Series A | Toyota Ventures, Sanjeev Krishnan | Flybridge Capital Partners, Grit Ventures, Andrew Wheeler, Momenta Ventures, Ravelin Capital, Village Global, Cibus, FF Venture Capital, F Prime Capital, Radicle Growth, ADM Capital | Announced |
| Apr 1, 2019 | $2M Seed | FF Venture Capital | Catapult Capital, CoinFund, Cowboy Ventures, Draper Associates, Evolve VC, First Round Capital, HOF Capital, Lobby Capital, Mayfield, Motier Ventures, Rick Yang, NFX, Sierra Ventures, Spark Capital, The HIT Forge, White Star Capital, Marcus Segal, Shervin Pishevar, TOM Williams, Kirk Haney, S2G Ventures | Announced |
Burro has raised $37.0M in total across 3 funding rounds.
Burro's investors include Brian Rich, Kaz Kikuchi, Flybridge Capital Partners, Grit Ventures, Andrew Wheeler, Momenta Ventures, Ravelin Capital, Toyota Ventures, Village Global, Archie Burgess, Sanjeev Krishnan, Cibus.