Key Takeaways
- Agovor secures AU$3 million in an oversubscribed pre-seed funding round
- Round led by Tenacious Ventures with participation from Hort Innovation and OCAST-linked investment channels
- Company develops autonomous electric eTractors with towable attachments for horticulture
- Early adopters report cost savings, reduced water use, and lower chemical inputs
- Funding to support R&D, manufacturing expansion, and sales growth across Australia and New Zealand
Agovor Secures Pre-Seed Funding to Advance Autonomous Horticulture Solutions
Agovor, a New Zealand-founded horticultural robotics company, has closed a AU$3 million pre-seed funding round. The round was led by Tenacious Ventures, with co-investment from Hort Innovation Australia via the Hort Innovation Investment Fund managed by Artesian, and participation from an individual investor through the Active Investor Plus (AIP) scheme facilitated by Invest New Zealand.
Co-founders Richard Beaumont and Simon Carroll described the oversubscribed round as strong industry validation for Agovor’s approach to developing affordable autonomous robots for horticulture.
“Agovor started as a way to solve a problem for our own use at Ardmore Nurseries,” said Beaumont. “We had the same problems as everyone else – labour constrained, while trying to reduce costs – but there were too many barriers for adoption of new solutions.”
