The Reservoir’s key companions have fun the groundbreaking of its first agtech innovation hub in Salinas, California, marking a significant milestone in collaborative agricultural expertise development. | Credit score: The Reservoir
The Reservoir official launched its agtech-focused innovation hub this week, making a landmark program for agtech entrepreneurs to start out constructing their companies. Reservoir Farms, which claims to be the primary on-farm startup incubator in California, encompasses a state-of-the-art R&D facility for early-stage firms. Every firm has entry to maker area assets for prototyping and constructing its programs, together with safe construct and storage areas.
The important thing enabler is the on-site working farm space, the place the businesses can check their merchandise and collect real-world information to allow design selections. The Robotic Report posted a narrative in June in regards to the open name for purposes for the inaugural cohort of firms to occupy the Reservoir Farms. From this name, the preliminary residents at Reservoir Farms embrace:
These early-stage firms purchased into the imaginative and prescient of connecting main roboticists, engineers, and agricultural producers to speed up expertise from idea to commercialization.
“From the start, our imaginative and prescient has been excess of expertise—it’s about partnerships,” stated Danny Bernstein, CEO of the Reservoir. “Success is grounded in changing into an genuine a part of every farming neighborhood, connecting entrepreneurs, growers and next-generation expertise to reimagine the sustainability of U.S. farming. Creating this ‘Olympic Village of Agtech’ is barely attainable with trusted relationships on the bottom and a shared imaginative and prescient for what’s attainable.”
It was almost a yr in the past that Bernstein unveiled the idea of Reservoir Farms, along with business companions together with the Western Growers Affiliation and academic companions like UC ANR, Hartnell School, and Merced School. The imaginative and prescient behind Reservoir Farms is to speed up the event of recent AgTech options, whereas offering a chance for innovation to search out its approach out of analysis labs and into the sphere. That is the lacking hyperlink for entrepreneurs who wish to work within the agriculture world, however haven’t had the early improvement assets essential to make their goals a actuality.
Final week, the Reservoir introduced its strategic partnership with John Deere, a frontrunner in agricultural expertise and gear. For Reservoir residents, the partnership creates a novel setting the place innovation meets real-world software. Residents acquire entry to Deere’s expertise (together with APIs), experience, and gear, alongside devoted testing acres, structured pilot alternatives, and curated area days.
Earlier this week, John Deere acquired GUSS Automation, a developer of autonomous sprayers for high-value crops. That is the newest in a collection of agrobotics-related acquisitions for John Deere.
The Reservoir offers startups with a clearer path to validate options in high-value crops, have interaction straight with growers, and discover potential integrations with Deere’s world platform — strengthening the bridge between early-stage concepts and scalable agricultural affect.
You possibly can be taught extra about area robotics, and community with the robotics neighborhood by attending the sphere robotics observe at RoboBusiness 2025 in Santa Clara, CA on October 16-17. Register now.
