Ames, IA — Sabanto, a leader in autonomous retrofit technology for agriculture, today announced an oversubscribed Series B funding led by Leaps by Bayer with participation by Sustainable Forward Capital, InnoVenture Iowa, Fulcrum Global Capital, DCVC, and Yara. The round will accelerate broad adoption of autonomous technology, expand customer base, and further develop autonomy retrofit kits across North America and beyond.
Sabanto’s ambition for scale comes at a critical time for agriculture, as growers face historic tighter margins via rising equipment and input costs, labor shortages, and increasing pressure to maximize productivity. While well-known equipment manufacturers or OEMs are focusing on bigger and more expensive machines, Sabanto’s retrofit autonomy platform offers farmers a lower-capital pathway to profitability by utilizing existing, less-expensive, and smaller horsepower equipment.
By enabling tractors to operate autonomously during planting and other field operations, Sabanto helps growers extend operating hours to virtually any time of day while reducing dependency on seasonal labor constraints. Autonomous retrofit technology will increasingly allow farm operators to reallocate skilled labor toward logistics, agronomic decision-making, and operational expansion.
“This investment represents a major step forward in bringing practical autonomy to more farms,” said Craig Rupp, CEO and founder of Sabanto. “We believe the workhorse of the future is smaller equipment. Our retrofit approach allows farmers to shift labor toward higher-value tasks, increase operating hours, and ultimately focus on growing their business and their bottom line. We’re seeing too many farms fold under economic pressure and our solution levels the playing ield.”
Source : Farm Equipment