Small Robot Company runs out of road..

The Small Robot Company made an announcement on LinkedIn on Friday 2nd February as follows:

It is with great sadness that after a long fight Small Robot Company today proceeds into liquidation. Our technology delivered value at a profit, with customers waiting, but we could not secure the required investment to scale. We had a signed Term Sheet, but unfortunately the investment did not land before our runway ended.

We have created something remarkable in the last 6 years. We co-designed our service with farmers, successfully delivering their ‘Holy Grail’, a world first: grass weed detection at field scale. This went commercially live in September, with huge potential: UK blackgrass alone loses farmers £400 million each year. Service last season demonstrated up to 90% herbicide and 24% fertiliser savings.

We believe we developed something that will be a cornerstone of how farms are run in the future, but unfortunately with this attempt we were too early for the market. Our chapter in the fourth agricultural revolution is over. We hope we have inspired others to continue the mission.

As of the 1st February, Kroll has been appointed as administrators to sell the assets. We have worked with them to find potential acquirers, ideally to find a future for some of the team and the technology which continues to have a benefit to farmers, and the planet.

We would like to thank everyone who has supported us in our mission to make farming sustainable, in particular, our team, whose dedication and perseverance brought us so close to success, and those of you who gave us bridge funding and assistance to explore all options to continue. We worked very hard to pursue all avenues, including finance and acquisition. We received huge support in these attempts from our community, and across the industry, for which we are profoundly grateful. Sadly, we have reached the end of our road.

Thank you for supporting our journey.