Yamaha Motor Invests in U.S. Startup Abundant Robotics— Automation in Horticulture solves Labor Shortage and Productivity Improvements —

March 17, 2020

IWATA, March 17, 2020 - Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. (Tokyo:7272) announced today that it has made an additional investment of US$2.5 million in Abundant Robotics - a startup in the United States that develops robotic apple harvesting solutions.

Yamaha Motor started a relationship with Abundant in 2016 with an initial US$250,000 investment. Through discussion about the shape of collaboration moving forward, the two companies have reached an agreement regarding additional investment that contributes to Yamaha Motor’s Long Term Vision of advancing robotics for agriculture.

Aimed at technology development oriented toward agricultural automation, the investment in Abundant was realized through the work of Yamaha Motor Ventures & Laboratory Silicon Valley (YMVSV), a Group company that conducts CVC^* activities.

The Company aims to contribute to labor-shortage solutions and automation in the agricultural field through accelerating the development of robotics technology and unmanned systems.

^*: CVC (Corporate Venture Capital)

Images courtesy of: Abundant Robotics

Abundant Robotics' automatic apple harvester (left) and
picking apples with the mechanism's dedicated arm (right)

Abundant Robotics Overview