University of Essex spinout Versatile RobotX has secured over £1m in blended equity investment and grant funding to accelerate the commercial deployment of its AI-powered agricultural robots.
The funding package combines equity backing from the British Design Fund (BDF) with grant awards from Innovate UK’s Growth Catalyst Investor Partnerships scheme and the Defra Farming Innovation Programme.
Founded by Professor Klaus McDonald-Maier and Dr Vishwanathan Mohan, Versatile RobotX develops autonomous crop-handling and harvesting robots designed to address agricultural labour shortages and increase harvest efficiency.
The company’s systems integrate embedded AI, machine vision, and robotic manipulation arms to automate delicate harvesting tasks. The technology has undergone field validation through pilot trials with commercial UK growers, including Wilkin & Sons of Tiptree and JEPCO.
The capital will be deployed to prepare the startup’s modular robots for volume manufacturing, broaden trials across additional crop types, and support the rollout of a Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS) commercial model for domestic and international farms.
“Agriculture faces unprecedented challenges around labour availability, food security and sustainability,” said McDonald-Maier.
“This funding will allow us to accelerate the transition from successful field trials to commercial deployment, as we aim to make advanced robotics affordable and accessible to growers worldwide.”
Mohan added: “Growers consistently tell us that affordability, reliability and ease of deployment are key barriers to automation. This funding package will help us scale manufacturing readiness, strengthen customer engagement and demonstrate how Robotics-as-a-Service can provide a practical route to adoption for farms of all sizes.”
