Greater than 300 growers, ag leaders, federal and state officers, neighborhood companions, traders and media attended the grand opening of Reservoir Farms – Salinas. | Credit score: The Reservoir
Reservoir Farms had its Grand Opening on Monday, welcoming the Agtech world onto the farm to see the fertile grounds developed to assist younger startups. The agtech incubator has been the dream of Reservoir founder, CEO, and investor Danny Bernstein, who appeared on Episode 218 of The Robotic Report Podcast to spotlight his imaginative and prescient.
The location broke floor on August 25, 2025 and has been upgraded with workplace area and workshops for its first cohort of tenants.
“From our early days, Reservoir listened intently to partners to understand where innovation in agriculture was stuck,” mentioned Bernstein. “Once our vision to create an on-farm innovation center was clear, we worked relentlessly with partners across the industry to bring the energy, focus, and skills necessary to manifest the space and people necessary to make this a reality. With the doors open, the focus turns to execution and impact – in the form of real-world solutions for growers, upskilled jobs for rural communities, and a more secure food supply for American consumers.”
Residents of Reservoir Farms have entry to workplace area, plus a shared manufacturing/maker area, and safe container area for prototypes. | Credit score: Reservoir Farms
The ability is supported by means of a partnership of regional agriculture business leaders, together with Western Growers Affiliation, John Deere, UC ANR, Hartnell School, and Merced School. These companions present assist for go-to-market, testing, and validation.
The brand new web site options a number of innovation barns and 24 acres of devoted industrial take a look at fields, making a concentrated ecosystem of know-how leaders, growers, and startups to scale options for international meals manufacturing challenges.
“Growers have been at the heart of Reservoir from day one,” mentioned Walt Duflock, vp of innovation at Western Growers. “Through Western Growers’ partnership, our members have had a seat at the table from the very beginning to make sure this isn’t innovation for innovation’s sake, but rather innovation focused on solving the labor, cost, and sustainability pressures they feel every season. Our new multi-year partnership with Reservoir is designed to take this model from Salinas into more crops and regions, and to turn promising technologies into rugged tools growers can trust.”
Reservoir introduced plans final summer time to develop its on-farm innovation middle mannequin throughout California, Arizona, and different main rising areas, with every hub anchored by main educational and R&D establishments. Reservoir startups have been invited to run pilots over the winter months on the College of Arizona’s Yuma Agricultural Middle, testing applied sciences in industrial desert vegetable manufacturing.
Reservoir additionally introduced it would break floor on Reservoir Farms – Central Valley in Merced, California this June and is transferring towards the primary shut of its enterprise capital fund, Reservoir VC.
“Through all our efforts, our mission remains ‘Technology as Resilience’ – to help derisk and accelerate R&D through on-farm testing in commercial operations across the country’s largest permanent, bedded, and other high-value specialty crops,” mentioned Bernstein. “We’re building a network of places where growers, innovators, and investors can work side by side to bring solutions to market faster. And we are just getting started.”
2026 cohort
12 startups from around the globe are planting their roots on the Salinas location in 2026. They bring about new concepts, expertise, and applied sciences to unravel actual challenges in agriculture. The worth proposition of Reservoir Farms is to supply the workplace area, shared manufacturing instruments (machine store, welding gear, 3D printers), and safe storage/barn area. The most important worth add is entry to functioning crop land, winery, and orchards to allow testing and validation for the younger agtech startup applied sciences.
Here’s a take a look at 9 of the startups situated at Reservoir Farms. There are three different startups which can be working in stealth mode.
Agtom
ADAMS serves as Agtoms’ on-field agent, constantly gathering knowledge and controlling farm units based mostly on directions from AI Brokers or growers. | Credit score: Agtom
Agtom delivers agentic farming by turning real-time plant suggestions into quick autonomous motion utilizing multispectral cameras and task-oriented rovers. Our system eliminates guesswork, enabling growers to function as lead engineers of a self-correcting subject that optimizes each useful resource to drive constant, high-output outcomes.
Beagle Expertise
Beagle Expertise’s winery pruner attachments assist winery house owners preserve their vineyards. | Credit score: Beagle Expertise
Beagle Expertise builds embodied‑AI pruning and harvest methods that use excessive‑precision notion and management software program to remodel conventional implements into automated instruments, delivering “See and Cut” accuracy for vineyards and specialty crops. Founder and CEO Yang Fang leads the corporate’s effort to scale back pruning labor and enhance consistency with tractor‑mounted and robotic platforms.
BHF Robotics
The Blitz ElectricWeeder leverages superior AI deep studying imaginative and prescient know-how to establish weeds and crops in actual time, utilizing high-power electrical energy to kill weeds and to skinny crops. | Credit score: BHF Robotics
BHF Robotics develops agricultural robots just like the Blitz ElectricWeeder, which is an AI-guided weeding robotic that selectively eliminates weeds utilizing focused high-voltage electrical energy. Superior AI identifies weeds in actual time, delivering exact electrical therapy that destroys the plant right down to the roots with out disturbing the soil or damaging crop root methods. As a result of it requires no soil preparation and is efficient in any respect weed progress levels, Blitz supplies growers with a protracted operational window all through the season—providing a clear, environment friendly, and sustainable strategy to weed administration with out herbicides.
Cropr
Cropr is a know-how firm that builds AI-driven machines for the agri sector. The corporate remains to be presently in stealth and never able to share its options but.
Farmblox
The Farmblox Wi-fi Monitor powers the related sensor and wirelessly transmits sensor readings. | Credit score: FarmBlox
Farmblox is an agricultural know-how firm offering automation and sensor-based monitoring options to assist growers enhance productiveness and safe their property.
Core Platform & Expertise
Farm Automation: Connects in-field sensors and gear to a centralized app, permitting farmers to watch knowledge (soil moisture, climate, tubing strains) and automate duties remotely.
Scalability: Designed to operate throughout any farm dimension, from one to hundreds of acres, with the power so as to add sensors as wanted.
Customization: Provides a modular “building block” strategy with over 15 supported sensor varieties to go well with varied crops and climates.
Lumo
Lumo is an all-in-one, wi-fi, precision irrigation system designed to get growers up and operating rapidly and at a decrease value. | Lumo
Lumo helps growers irrigate to plan throughout each block, each time. With block-level knowledge and accountable automation, growers are in a position to shut the hole between the quantity of water they want to apply and the quantity that really will get delivered within the subject. Assumptions get changed by verified efficiency, points get surfaced instantly by means of alerts, and irrigation groups get extra performed in much less time.
Neuralzome
The Mowack Professional handles heavy brush clearing and dense overgrowth throughout massive areas—with out slowing down. | Credit score: Neuralzome
Neuralzome is constructing Neuralpilot, a teachable autonomy stack. It learns operational nuances from an operator in minutes and replicates perpetually at scale. Present purposes embody precision mowing and weeding for orchards, vineyards, and farmland.
Numanac
Numanac is a voice‑first digital farming platform that lets growers and agronomists seize subject observations, audio notes, photographs, and legacy information and convert them right into a structured farm database with out further paperwork. That rising operational reminiscence powers an AI copilot for compliance reporting, crew coordination, and smarter selections, constructing wealthy field-level context past the business normal.
TRIC Robotics
Ultraviolet gentle destroys pests and pathogens; the vacuum removes bugs — each chemical-free. | Credit score: TRIC Robotics
TRIC Robotics was a 2024 RoboBusiness Pitchfire finalist. The corporate delivers autonomous, non-chemical pest and illness management utilizing UV-C gentle and Bug Vacuum applied sciences. Its Robotic-as-a-Service (RaaS) mannequin helps growers cut back enter and labor prices whereas enhancing plant productiveness and farm profitability. The corporate is targeted on the industrial strawberry market in California and is headquartered in Santa Maria.
The publish Inside the brand new ‘Dwelling Lab’ advancing agricultural robotics appeared first on The Robotic Report.
