This Next Billion-Dollar Startup Was Built To Save America’s Farms With Tractorbots 

As an American dairy farmer I do think large farms are operated like factories we study manufacturing techniques and we have used things like GPS 25 years ago and we milk cows with robots and clean barns and feed with robots on more and more farms. We have specialized labor more and more and drastically increased workers marginal productivity. I work in agtech as well and i am always amazed how far behind general public and VC are when they talk about production ag.

What's incredibly scummy about this is that, this company is charging their customers high a subscription to datamine the farmer's hard won expertise and skills and selling this whole concept as they're doing the farmer a favor. What would be much more impressive is if they bring this subscription down and simplify serviceability. This just seems like they are trying to copy what John Deere is doing by boxing farmers in their tech and exploiting farmers.

Once fully tested and scaled up. One of the BIG Tractor companies like Massey Ferguson; Case IH; John Deere or Mahindra will buy them and adapt the new Technology. It will be too good to pass up.

You understand how Forbes views business practices and morals when they see scummy software subscriptions as a business model as “saving America”. I imagine their business model also includes selling the Geo-agricultural data of farmers to interested companies. The software should be included in the price of the tractor when you purchase the tractor.

23:10 For a solo electric tractor riding along spraying herbicides, pesticides, would mean that there has to be a tractor wash, to scrub away all the chemicals too, once it's back in the parking bay. To reduce exposure to the human personnel who will be in contact with it for servicing, recharging, etc...

And will farmers have the right to repair their own tractors? If not, then you're just adding to their costs.

This sounds like an infomercial….

Stopped listening when i heard the words Mckinsey & Co

Back in india modern farmers are spraying fields using drones. 😆

It would have been nice to hear a farmers perspective.

Good luck at selling to farmers. I worked in DigitalAg and even if we give very accurate predictions, today I know farmers want get stuff done and guarantees to harvest good crops. All in between dont interest the mass, maybe just the tech interest once. Valuation means nothing as we learned in the last few years. Either the take off real work and proove it or save time - everything else is hot air…

If you spray poison onto food, maybe rethink your practice.

None of the people in this video are farmers. 😂

Dull, dirty, dangerous... and low-paying! Pay the workers more!

not even 50 sec in and they are talking about a subscription service. LOL, no thanks. I will stick to making ethanol and wood gas to power my grandads old equipment once they have outlawed gasoline.

An autonomous tractor is far down the priority list of what farmers need right now. I hope they succeed but I imagine their journey will be long and difficult.

Monarch you say.. eh! Those fields are probably over a bunch of giants.

I see ZED depth camera at work there. Great stuff 👍🏽

Not really a shortage of farmhands it's farmers not willing to pay a decent wage for them hence why most farm hands are immigrants.

He is a farmer? I doubt he has ploughed anything and not even worked for one season on a farm

The most dangerous place on the farm is the seat of the tractor.😂😂😂😂 These guys are certainly not farmers.😂😂😂😂

Mind-blowing, milestone reporting!! Thank you so much!!

This Tractor are really a game changer for farmers since it can keep them more safe and it less pollute to the environment that allows more room for more efficient approach this can really bring the shift change into the world. Help bring awareness to farmers so they can the equipment they need to better protect them and give them the tools they need to be successful and to help the future of farmers can have a more healthier impact in the later coming years.

It has revenue of only $22m, valuation of $271m, sold to investors for $116 likely more than half the company for a lawn mover and data collector? I do not see how this will scale...

Subscription costs will be a deal breaker for many Can we program the tractor without paying a fee every year?

Awesome 👍😎

John Deere has been working and developing this for years as well. Their tractors are much bigger and can cover more acres. This competition is great for the farmers and consumers. May the best company win.

It’s fun until you cant fix certain things due to the software unless you take it into their shop

Impressive tech'. Nicely presented. But the potential ramifications and connected issues I find scary.

This is incredible! Wishing them great success!!

Farmers problem is Bill Gates

did they obey the right to repair?

Very good initiative It will take time but after some modifications as per practical use, these tractors will make sense in many parts of the world

im 100 pre cent sure john deere are 20 years ahead of this company

The distrust towards corporates in agriculture is understandable. Farmers have burnt their fingers quite a few times already. But I hope these people succeed as I have seen first hand the skill shortage in Agriculture even in populous countries like India. This solution if available at decent costs will be of immense help especially to farmers in western countries like USA.

116/271 = 42% of the company, there is no way they can reach $1Bn valuation now, no one going to invest $500M on it.

The key farmers can fix it easy... If u done same business practices like jhon Deere ure done...

Solar panels would be nice if they were a little more powerful in pulling in energy

Save americas farms? Farmer here. Last thing we need is another 8000 dollar per tractor subscription with weekly service fees from the robotics geek to come out to the farm and fix the damn thing. No thanks. Give me back my 1980s equipment.

Too fancy at much higher cost but they don’t tell what problem they solve.

Nice idea but these corporate clowns are so full of VC language bs.

This is I loved to do. As software engineer with Agriculture degree. Haha where is the job section? Awesome work….

Wow❤❤❤❤ with satellite communication constellation this can be very cool cyber farmer to automation

I just dont see how you can automate tasks that require operators to get off and check how the machine is doing without actually having the driver there. How do you check the depth of seed, the cutting height, or the rate of application of manure when solely relying on what the sensors are telling you at home. The quality of the end result will be lower for sure. Also its all well and good in a vineyard the size of a suburb to turn around but how does it cope when reversing a trailer- a very difficult task for new drivers? Has this been proven yet? Also at 8k per year yes the cost is lower than paying a worker, but while this machine may identify "5 areas to improve" in the field, a human on the ground will notice EVERYTHING as you're eyes are on your task and paying attention to your surroundings will do so intrinsically. Also- a tractor with a cab drastically reduces exposure to the chemicals that are sprayed in vineyards, and if youre not spending 80k dollars in ten years for software support you can then afford to put glass on the cab. Yes this company has potential, and yes autonomous tractors are already the present with GPS guidance and RTK, but damn most of the points they make in this video are painfully redundant.

'Monarch' is the worst naming possible.

I love how they talk about making farming safer for workers - but then all that toxic spray gets passed on to consumers!

one thing most farmers i know is someone whos got a name they cant fuckin pronounce, and this man will definitely be at the top of their list.

We need open source software for the hardware, if someone develops it will be not so hard to fit the regular tractors with controllers and actuators.

All I want to know is if and when are they going public

Using an electric tractor doesnot necessarily means reducing emissions. More like shifting or transferring emissions. If the country as a whole is not producing electricity through renewables then using an electric or diesel tractor doesnot make a difference. If a farmer uses solar panels to charge the tractors then its a new story but a farmer also have to consider the bottom line because he also has to make a living and the capital cost of solar panels doesn't make it feasible to install a solar plant on the farm big enough to run tractors and other heavy machinery.

The first thing that's come to my mind when I see these electric tractors, is what are there capabilities in sand muddy soil ?

Ain’t no way I’m getting rid of my old diesel tractor 🚜💪🏼

Useless destruction of investor capital. The future of farming is indoor under controlled conditions to reduce pollution, labor, and chemicals required for production. Robots for this already exist. Good con!

Impressive tech, hope they succeed

These entrepreneurs look like office workers who make another hype project to sell to retail and forget until another one. They seem to have never worked on a field but have “great ideas” . There are tons of such ideas Which went bust after being sold to the public.

Why an open cab and not enclosed? Sure you can remove the operator during chemical applications but it still will get on the seat and controls that the operator will come in contact with later. Why not solar panels on the roof as well?

more technological progress is not gonna save the destructive farming practices, that pollute water, soil and humans its based on ecological principles, from there tech can be implemented... not the other way around then its just about making money, which is a futile thing to do, and rips you of your own Soul, you can eventually see it in there eyes, a empty glace of superficial satisfaction

Minus all the marketing and business jargons this project reminds me of time when I was young, I made a robot gripper for NASA complete with machine vision to identify ripeness and cutting and capturing systems to harvest broccoli and cherry tomatoes on simulater Mars based Green house. Unfortunately there was no need to go to Mars anymore in a short period after which the entire mission was scrubbed probably makes sense just rocks out there...

The Praveen Penmetsa I was died forever.

hahhahah spraying chemicals with an electric tractor, future generations will laugh hard (sustainable farming ;)

23:20 Shortage of tractor drivers.

The people bitching about the software forget how expensive stuff is in agriculture. I live in the midwest and study at a school there that gets john deere pretty often to recruit. They bring their newer models of the bigger tractors. And they cost millions. Yup, millions. 8 grand a year a drop in a bucket. It costs way more to hire machine operators. Unfortunately, most of whom are undocumented. So both risk and cost intensive. Because of this, many farmers still use 30 - or 40 - or 50 year old equipment. This is one thing I want to be different. For them to produce a machine that runs for decades without becoming outdated or unusable like general consumer electronics.

I can already see the scene from Interstellar happening..."One by one, they've been peeling off the fields and heading over!"

If I had a dollar for every story about a farmer dying because of a tractor operation mistake... if I had a dollar, I'd be able to pay attention.

as much i would like it say its great idea . at some time i wouldnt buy such equitment sounds to me its like your hooked being subscribe for paying for the software update and uses each month on top all other cost

Meanwhile millions are out there without jobs. Give people opportunities man, not machines. WTH

Security cameras are cheaper now, not more expensive due to increased technology. That was a really poor example.

i think i have heard "monarch" somewhere

Carbon credits could be thw new revolutionised way of the futuristic initiatives for sustainable energy resources and sustainable environment 😮😮😮😮..... Which we now ging to face in future soon in next decade ....

Another Indian origin 🔥.... 💕

not a single farmer interviewed in this doc….. like what?

Save farms? Or sell robot tractors? I guess the first one sounds better.

Also the reason they only make small tractor is all electric vehicles way a lot and a big electric tractor is going to crush the land.

Renting software? Is this a good idea? What are the advantages to this?

So ok, beyond all that Silicon Valley "we save the world" talk within a vineyard, it is a tractor company that encourages the usage of autonomous systems and information gathering. How in the world is that special? Every major tractor company goes down that road. It's also not special to electrify your vehicle fleet, it's not special to add gps, cameras and lidar to your system. Seriously, autonomous tractors have existed for years. And farmes are a conservative customer base outside of california when it comes to sharing information about their crops. There is a range of other providers that allready give you autonomous add-on capabilities like iQuus for your existing tractors without gathering data and sharing them with your competition. - This idea of "sharing tractors or farm equipment" is also a bunch of bullshit. First of all you need the logistics to be even sharable. Nobody is hauling a tractor 200 miles to your doorstep. - Someone has to make the first inital investment anyway and why should any farmer provide farming equipment to one of his competitors? Do you know a car manufacturing company that provides it's facility to a competitor? No farmer will lease out their equipment without serious compensation, clarified business deals and service agreements. Farmers are businesses with competition. - The other point is timeliness; everyone has to farm their crops basically at the same time. There is the perfect time to farm your crops and you do not want to go beyond that day. This means at the end all the equipment has to be available and bought anyway. - Also there is the question of interoperabilitiy. When I buy a tractor from Fendt, for example; I have a piece of equipment that can do a wide range of tasks from mowing, crop protection, collecting, combine harvesting and more. They provide an ecosystem to a farmers needs. And on top of that if you opt-in for one manufacturer you are provided with discounts. So Why should I of a suden change to Monarch and loose my discounts with my existing farming equipment provider? Monarch would have to build up this ecosystem to be a serious competitor to all the existing equipment manufacturers. -Last, why do these people in Sillicon Valley belief that farmers are high marging customers? Farmers are not the people you can milk for cash, neighter are poor farmers in Asia, India or Africa. Even in America where the farmers are "rich" compared to others around the world, you see a major movement to right for repair, autonomous add-on kits and an opposition to subscribtion based offerings and closed of systems like John Deer provides. And this is the reason why they have to bring up this "We safe the World" talk because it doesn't really add up when you crunch the numbers. I'm not saying their tech is bad or that their equipment is bad or that their business model is not adding up positively in the end. I'm just saying it's not a billion dollar company when you have not even sold 100 tractors. What they REALLY should sell are add-on Kits like these Sensor-Fortress-Rooftops they equip their tractors with. They should partner up with serious equipment manufacturers like John Deer, Fendt, Escorts, Tafe, Kubota etc. 1. They would lower their industrial base; instead of manufacturing tractors and additional farming equipment ecosystem they "only" have to manufacture flexible rooftops equiped with a wide range of sensors. 2. They would not have to provide Infrastructure for service stations all around the world when tractors break down. Because the next tractor mechanic is around 5 miles away from me, I do not see how Monarch will be able to provide such a service network in the near future. 3. They actualy could help farmers around the world without the need to replace their existing equipment. You could still give some discount when the customer has an electric tractor if you really want to save the world. 4. They could focus on beeing a digial service provider that really focuses on a farming knowledge management plattform.

Forbes Feature ? So scandal>jail in 3-5 years ? lets see how this ages...

Yay, robots spraying poisons rather than people spraying poisons.

Tell this CEO, not to loot farmers. The subscription he is charging them should be for a 5 yr period. As he won't give them dividends for tge data is mining through their farms. - It shows how kess the govt cares for its farmers to allow such an exploitation. It's not mechanical but ICT company too. They are fooling everybody in low taxes as a tractor company and the farmers.

So they're getting the training data for free?

I worry about farmers right to repair something like this. It is very expensive to bring a tractor to a repair shop so I hope they can have repair specialists that will go to the farms instead of burdening the farmers.

CHANGE the farm bill subsidies,. that would help farmers and the environment NOW!

All this technology and the prices in the store is higher, not lower. Intentions are not to help but to hurt.

Are most farms in the US not owned by 4 huge companies

This whole thing of replacing people is not well thought out….

Aren’t drones more efficient?😂

Farmers need simple all mechanical tractors that they can fix themselves

Sir which Indian Village has just two tractors?? I would like to personally know

McKinsey? Really? 🙈

Oh, and productivity comes at the expense of jobs. It’s a model that Apple, ATT, and other big data conglomerates use to,exploite farmers and workers and unless we say no more, the exploitation will continue unabated.

My question is if more and more ppl live on earth but less and less labour is available, where are those people?

Where is this on the stock market. Lol im tryna get on this

Data is gold but not everything. Large scale could solve the issues but small scale will be burn out of money. No sustainable will be achieved. These will be made cheep with big company. These will not go beyond some time , I think big players will acquire these.

Not all farmers are skilled. These makes all level playing field and reduces need for more workers

so they sold 10 first year, 88 second year...

All electric Good for Valuation

fbi guy thinking in the thumbnail

why not just employ few drivers and give them employment? I'm sure it would be way cheap and also great for economy too.

Country's like africa

The farmers are facing a struggle from overregulation's. this Bs company is not the answer. hope they go BK

So the tractor driver is training their replacement..