Robots to Corn: You'll Eat When I Say You Eat

A Canadian agtech startup raises $7.5M to bring fertilizer-cutting robots to the US corn belt

1 Apr 2026

A Canadian startup developing autonomous robots that apply fertiliser only when crops need it has raised $7.5 million in seed funding and is preparing to expand into the US corn belt.

Upside Robotics, based in Waterloo, Ontario, uses solar-powered robots equipped with real-time soil and weather sensors to deliver nutrients throughout the growing season rather than in a single pre-planting pass. The approach matches fertiliser supply to plant demand at each growth stage.

The company says farms using the system have cut fertiliser use by 70%, saving roughly $150 per acre per season. It expanded from 70 acres under coverage in 2024 to 1,200 acres in 2025, and is targeting more than 3,000 acres in 2026. All existing customers have renewed, and more than 200 farms are on the waitlist.

The seed round was led by Plural, with participation from Garage Capital and the founders of robotics firm Clearpath. Proceeds will fund US market entry and further hardware development.

The backdrop is favourable. US farmers are forecast to spend $34 billion on fertiliser in the 2025 season, and corn is among the most input-intensive crops in the country. Conventional application methods deliver nutrients in bulk before planting, but studies suggest only around 30% is absorbed by the crop. The rest is lost to runoff and leaching, raising both farm costs and environmental concern.

"Farmers are often the ones asking for the solution rather than being pitched on it," said co-founder and chief executive Jana Tian.

The broader precision agriculture market is projected to reach $17.29 billion by 2031, roughly double its current value, with nutrient management technology cited as a key growth driver. Whether smaller operations can access the capital needed to adopt autonomous systems at scale, and how the technology performs across varying soil and climate conditions beyond its Canadian test base, remain open questions as the company crosses into a new and considerably larger market.