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Orchard Robotics, founded

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Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital, Elad Gil — just a few of the heavy hitters joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They’re here to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don’t miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech — grab your ticket now and save up to $600+ before prices rise.

Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda

Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital — just a few of the heavy hitters joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They’re here to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don’t miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech — grab your ticket now and save up to $675 before prices rise.

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Orchard Robotics, founded Marina Temkin AM PDT · September 3, 2025 Inspired

“I got to meet fruit professors who are the best in the world at what they do,” Wu told TechCrunch. “Through talking to them, I realized even the largest farms in the nation basically have no idea what is actually growing out in their fields.”

He dropped out of Cornell, became a Thiel fellow, and in 2022 began building Orchard Robotics, a startup that uses cameras and AI to help fruit growers manage their crops more precisely.

On Wednesday, Orchard Robotics announced that it raised a $22 million Series A funding led

Although the idea of using computer vision for specialty crops isn’t new, Wu says that the largest farms in the US still rely on manual sampling to make critical decisions about farm operations.

Since farmers inspect only a small percentage of their crops, their estimations of how many healthy fruits they have on their vineyard or orchard can be extremely imprecise.

“If you don’t know what you’re growing in the field, you don’t know how much chemical to apply to it. You don’t know how many workers to hire to harvest it. You don’t know what you can actually sell and market,” Wu said.

Techcrunch event Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital, Elad Gil — just a few of the heavy hitters joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They’re here to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don’t miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech — grab your ticket now and save up to $600+ before prices rise. Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital — just a few of the heavy hitters joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They’re here to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don’t miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech — grab your ticket now and save up to $675 before prices rise. San Francisco | October 27-29, 2025 REGISTER NOW Orchard’s small camera attaches to tractors or farm vehicles, collecting ultra-high-resolution images about fruit health as the operator drives through the field. Those images are then analyzed

The data is then uploaded into Orchard’s cloud-based software, which acts as a central record for making decisions such as the vines or trees that may need extra fertilization, pruning or thinning.

Orchard is already in use in some of the country’s largest apple and grape farms, and the startup recently began to offer its technology to blueberries, cherries, almonds, pistachios, citrus, and strawberry growers.

The company is not alone in its use of tractor-mounted cameras to leverage AI for specialty crop

Wu admits the existing market for fruit and vegetable data is only $1.5 billion, but he believes that future AI advancements will allow the technology to make autonomous decisions, expanding Orchard’s product offerings.

He hopes Orchard’s evolution mirrors that of Flock Safety, a public safety startup now valued at $7.5 billion, which over the past eight years has expanded from simply collecting license plate information to a range of other products, including gunshot detection and video surveillance.

“Our ambition is to be a lot more than just collecting data,” Wu said. “We want to collect the data, then build an operating system on top of the data, and then eventually own all the workflows in the farm, and that’s going to have the potential to expand our market

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Marina Temkin

Marina Temkin is a venture capital and startups

You can contact or verify outreach from Marina

October 27-29, 2025 San Francisco Put your brand in front of 10,000+ tech and VC leaders across all three days of Disrupt 2025. Amplify your reach, spark real connections, and lead the innovation charge. Secure your exhibit space before your competitor does.Last day to book is September 5

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