This Next Billion-Dollar Startup Was Built To Save America’s Farms With Tractorbots
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- čas přidán 24. 07. 2024
- Monarch CEO Praveen Penmetsa expects sales to triple or more this year as it gets its autonomous electric tractors in the hands of farmers, earning the Livermore, California-based company a coveted spot on our annual list of the Next Billion-Dollar Startups.
But launching an agricultural equipment company is tough. It is capital-intensive, and cash-strapped farmers tend to be a conservative lot resistant to change. But Livermore-based Monarch, which has raised $116 million in equity from investors and reached a valuation of $271 million at its most recent equity funding in November 2021, seems to have hit a tipping point. Last year, it booked $22 million in revenue, up from $5 million in 2021. This year Penmetsa expects revenue to increase three- to fivefold. That would bring it above $66 million, and possibly over $100 million, as the number of its tractors in the field goes from more than 100 to 1,000. As it expands, Penmetsa expects that more of its revenue will come from software subscriptions (up to $8,376 per tractor per year) that give farmers real-time alerts about sick plants and safety risks, plus gathering and crunching a ton of data to improve crop yields.
0:00 What Is Monarch?
2:21 How Monarch Built An Autonomous Tractor
6:35 Keeping Up With Customer Demand
8:37 Will Farmers Readily Adapt This New, More Expensive Technology?
11:04 Building A Product Farmers Will Use
12:26 What Monarch's Four Cofounders Bring To The Table
15:04 "Funding For A Hardware Company Is Challenging"
18:17 Solving The Power Dilemma
22:00 A Look At Monarch's Safety Features
24:12 Why Build Monarch In California?
25:41 A Market Opportunity Beyond America
28:11 Helping Farmers Brace For Climate Change
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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.
What was also funny is when he said that there is a shortage of farmhand workers. It’s more of farmers not being able to afford to pay for these workers not a shortage
after my experience with uber i never trust this companies that say they are here to help.
to add on to what you said which is very tru..their idea is not novel at all..its the setting that's different that's all.
the underlying tech, big data, AI, EV is now widely understood and improving all the time..
@@jamessitati7396 lool Uber is a normal job like a taxi not a startup to help self employed people downsize their companies
I see potential in the technology, ideally in the future people will buy their own electronic tractors and cut out the middleman.
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.
Agtech is a disgrace, it has yet to open the market to small scale farmers... it's only focus is commercial farmers so don't pretend as if agtech does anything for farmers but screw them over
Does your dairy belong to a co-op? If so, do they limit the production of your farm? How does that effect your farm?
Have you explored selling to other markets?
@@RicksPhatPharm-vw2lb like what companies? I know plenty of more software Agtech software companies that target small farmers instead of large farmers cuz they charge a subscription and there are so few large farms it makes much more sense to sell to smaller farms. And even if some tarket big farmers instead why is that bad? Lol Companies can't segment and target ideal customers just like what all farmers do?
@@carterchedester1901 Yes DFA largest dairy co-op and yes currently thinking of processing our own and selling locally and online. Around here (northern NY) we have way to much milk for our processing capacity we need to exspand or build new capacity. DFA doesn't limit milk production they just have to then truck it very far and this pay us much less per unit when we sell much over our basis. It's still absolute cake marketing dairy compared to starting any other type of business where you don't have an instant gurentee market for a huge amount of a valuable product. I always laugh when farmers complain about the price, like no one forced you to be a farmers don't like it sell out and try another business.
@@Ryanandboys Why not join UNC?
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.
I DONT THINK SO
@@felixthefoxMEXICO they have more capital and can develop these technologies in quick
Again for commercial farmers so no it won't take traction as commercial farmers are coming under fire in a huge way. It can't be that a handful of farmers screw everyone else. Farming is the life blood of all economies.. good luck thinking AI can replace farmers
technology should not end million jobs for making few people rich.
100% - Agco / JD will buy them and bury that tech
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.
Then it'll cost 10x more to pay for their workers for the next 30+ years . Updating software and maintaining servers cost money compared to the very limited amount of farmers that need that hardware.
@ryanthompson3737 ?? Why would the software be hard to update that make no sense
@reekid5183 ...it costs money to have programmers program. It costs money to own buildings, buildings that host physical computer hardware in the tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. It costs money to hire maintenance workers for the buildings and servers....
I mean, how do you go through life if you think things just poof into existence? John Deere and New Holland, for instance, spent 3.8% - 4.2% of their GROSS REVENUE into research and development. This accounts for $1 billion in New Holland and $1.5 - $2 billion for John Deere.... every single year. Last I checked, John deere isn't running around every year releasing the new iPhone of tractors.
Why should the software be free? It's not like they can advertise to grapevines and tomato plants.
good point
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.
I think they've made it so that only specialized shops will be able to.
I believe at some point they will add regulations to allow for personal onsite repairs or at least they will be brought up in debates. .
Stopped listening when i heard the words Mckinsey & Co
Back in india modern farmers are spraying fields using drones. 😆
This sounds like an infomercial….
It would have been nice to hear a farmers perspective.
You obviously dont understand how VC lying works ...
None of the people in this video are farmers. 😂
Exactly
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.
You clearly know nothing about agriculture. Automation has been the only thing, since the industrial revolution.
@@slozenger9000 I’m a farmer and am well informed on the agtech industry actually. My point is that, although I’m hoping for their success, I believe this company will struggle for the foreseeable future because farmers won’t prioritize this solution above many other needs they have right now. Farmers will pour their money into harvest solutions first as harvest is by far the largest labor expense. They also need data collection/analytics to optimize labor and also pruning solutions. The expense of operating a tractor to spray, mow, fertilize etc. is low in relation to these other aspects of farming. Farmers do not have capital to invest in all of these areas so I don’t believe autonomous tractors will be high on any farmers list at this point in time. In the future, of course, these will be used and that’s why I’m glad/appreciative they’re working on this. In the near term, it will be hard and that’s was all I was trying to say.
The tractor is no even innovative in what it suppose to do for the farmer.
It is just able to pass between the trees.
That is so cheap to do just by driving a normal tractor with a person.
And far less expensive that buying and using the high-tech tractor.
@@argotcalo5575labour Shortage left the chat
Not every farmer needs an auto tractor - but some certainly do.
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...
Data is gold
Some scammers trying to make a quick buck. And Forbes spreading their lies and bs.
Valuation means nothing... it's a speculative figure for how much, currently, one WOULD have to pay to buy out the entire company. There is likely plenty of shares still not purchased which is what that valuation is based on.
@@MrBemnet1 Farmers should get paid to give this "valuable" data to this company. Honestly.
If you spray poison onto food, maybe rethink your practice.
I see ZED depth camera at work there. Great stuff 👍🏽
Dull, dirty, dangerous... and low-paying! Pay the workers more!
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…
Thesecare not family owned but large farms owned by gates
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.
Monarch you say.. eh! Those fields are probably over a bunch of giants.
Mind-blowing, milestone reporting!! Thank you so much!!
It’s fun until you cant fix certain things due to the software unless you take it into their shop
....farmers can unionize and just... not produce food until the law is fixed. It's a contract law issue that needs to be fixed.
For instance, my grandparents are dog breeders and have a contract for that sale that prevents the customer from selling the dog, bringing it into another country, or even putting it down without my grandparents permission. The contract even requires them to make the dog infertile to prevent the customer from breeding more dogs. Point is, if it's in a contract, it's 99% of the time legally binding no matter how crazy is sounds.
He is a farmer? I doubt he has ploughed anything and not even worked for one season on a farm
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.
The most dangerous place on the farm is the seat of the tractor.😂😂😂😂 These guys are certainly not farmers.😂😂😂😂
Subscription costs will be a deal breaker for many
Can we program the tractor without paying a fee every year?
Impressive tech'.
Nicely presented.
But the potential ramifications and connected issues I find scary.
What issues?
room for many improvements to come but importantly and more focus demand into the design and Manufactuing.
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.
Yet a lot of farmers still buy green. You would think farmers would switch to Case, Claas, Massey, New Holland, AGCO.
This is incredible! Wishing them great success!!
Awesome 👍😎
Solar panels would be nice if they were a little more powerful in pulling in energy
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.
this is important.
Full disclosure, I write embedded software for John Deere. That being said you’ll get right to repair with things like diagnostics software and hardware, but I can never see right to modify (I.e open source). Most controllers these days come with hardware security to see if the software on the controller has been modified. Lots of system engineering goes into controller/actuator interfaces to ensure they’re safe. I think unfortunately the day has arrived that modern equipment really is too complicated to be safely open for modification. That being said I don’t think this is a good thing, and understand the desire of operators to be able to repair their own equipment. I don’t at all blame people who want to buy purely mechanical equipment that they know how to keep running
The first thing that's come to my mind when I see these electric tractors, is what are there capabilities in sand muddy soil ?
All I want to know is if and when are they going public
Wow❤❤❤❤ with satellite communication constellation this can be very cool cyber farmer to automation
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
Farmers problem is Bill Gates
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.
Sir which Indian Village has just two tractors?? I would like to personally know
Renting software? Is this a good idea? What are the advantages to this?
I love how they talk about making farming safer for workers - but then all that toxic spray gets passed on to consumers!
This is I loved to do. As software engineer with Agriculture degree. Haha where is the job section? Awesome work….
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.
did they obey the right to repair?
Nice idea but these corporate clowns are so full of VC language bs.
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...
116/271 = 42% of the company, there is no way they can reach $1Bn valuation now, no one going to invest $500M on it.
im 100 pre cent sure john deere are 20 years ahead of this company
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.
Agree 100% Also its a hard labor with no growth!
Thats an ignorant statement, you should see the profit margins of the farmers before speaking ill about them. Theyre not the ones making the money its the equipment providers ie CAT, John Deer, Kubota etc and the suppliers ie the ones who by the raw product from the farmers
The key farmers can fix it easy... If u done same business practices like jhon Deere ure done...
Too fancy at much higher cost but they don’t tell what problem they solve.
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?
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.
The Praveen Penmetsa I was died forever.
i think i have heard "monarch" somewhere
Impressive tech, hope they succeed
hahhahah spraying chemicals with an electric tractor, future generations will laugh hard (sustainable farming ;)
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.
23:20 Shortage of tractor drivers.
Where is this on the stock market. Lol im tryna get on this
Ain’t no way I’m getting rid of my old diesel tractor 🚜💪🏼
Yay, robots spraying poisons rather than people spraying poisons.
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
I can already see the scene from Interstellar happening..."One by one, they've been peeling off the fields and heading over!"
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
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 ....
'Monarch' is the worst naming possible.
Save farms? Or sell robot tractors? I guess the first one sounds better.
All this technology and the prices in the store is higher, not lower. Intentions are not to help but to hurt.
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.
Meanwhile millions are out there without jobs. Give people opportunities man, not machines. WTH
Can I import in India ?
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.
Aren’t drones more efficient?😂
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.
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.
That's a law issue, not a company issue. I can sell you a dog and stipulate that only I can do any medical care on the dog... if you sign the contract, YOU have to abide by it. Don't like it, use a different company.
fair point@@ryanthompson3737
Are most farms in the US not owned by 4 huge companies
Security cameras are cheaper now, not more expensive due to increased technology.
That was a really poor example.
Forbes Feature ? So scandal>jail in 3-5 years ? lets see how this ages...
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.
Yes, you may have a better understanding of how to run a company and what constitutes a good idea compared to a group of specialists and farmer partners LOL
McKinsey? Really? 🙈
So they're getting the training data for free?
fbi guy thinking in the thumbnail
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.
so they sold 10 first year, 88 second year...
FYI, 6 years ago: czcams.com/video/P2YPG8PO9JU/video.htmlsi=9FDRS_Hd8JAc5H9b
The total carbon footprint is likely lower than making these machines. Curious about the comparison between carbon foot print per square mile of crop comparing these two ways of applying pesticides
This whole thing of replacing people is not well thought out….
My question is if more and more ppl live on earth but less and less labour is available, where are those people?
Another Indian origin 🔥.... 💕
Farmers need simple all mechanical tractors that they can fix themselves
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.
So the tractor driver is training their replacement..
CHANGE the farm bill subsidies,. that would help farmers and the environment NOW!
Electrodependence is real.
Country's like africa
Subscription huh
No labor ? 😂
Ive been watching these guys for a while and am so happy to see them being acknowledged. The tractor just looks a bit weird when driving
Now companies not need to contact with farmer, now they can took full control. Bull sit start up
All electric Good for Valuation
Imagine when they partner eifh TSLA 💰💰💰