Elbow Beach Capital provided £1.5m towards the financing alongside a Seedrs round, with participation from Frontier IP and other existing investors.
"The Fieldwork Robotics team combine their significant technical expertise with a drive to create an instant and lasting impact. Agriculture as it stands is not fit for purpose and we need innovative technologies to alleviate the unsustainable levels of waste and improve the economics for the farmer and end customers in the sector. We look forward to working closely with Fieldwork as they tackle this issue head on."
The University of Plymouth spinout secured backing from Frontier IP to speed the development of its rapid pathogen detection systems.
"The COVID-19 outbreak has highlighted possible risks to human health from the environment and governments now want to test for bacterial contamination in water and other materials. However, our technology also allows fast detection of bacterial pathogens in fresh food produce, so our technology could significantly decrease the holding time of fresh food before it is released to supermarkets. This will increase the supply of fresh produce to supermarkets, which is especially critical at times of crisis, and support customer faith in the safety of the products."