Salmon Arm’s 4AG Robotics has secured $40 million in Series B financing to accelerate the global rollout of its autonomous mushroom-harvesting robots.
The round was led by Astanor Ventures and Cibus Capital, with participation from Voyager Capital and returning investors including InBC, Emmertech, BDC Industrial Innovation Fund, Stray Dog Capital, and the Jim Richardson Family Office.
The raise brings the company’s total funding to $57.5 million over the past two years, following a $17.5 million round in 2023. With deployments already underway in Canada, Ireland, and Australia, 4AG’s robotic platforms are soon headed to farms in the Netherlands and the United States.
“This funding helps us leap from a startup proving our product works to a scale-up manufacturer trying to keep pace with demand,” said CEO Sean O’Connor. “In just two and a half years, we’ve gone from asking farms to trial our technology to having deposits for over 40 additional robots.”
RELATED: 4AG Robotics is hiring
4AG Robotics has developed a proprietary system that uses AI-powered computer vision, precision suction grippers, and advanced motion control to harvest, trim, and pack mushrooms 24/7—no human hands required. The robots retrofit directly into existing Dutch-rack infrastructure, providing farms with plug-and-play automation that reduces labour costs, improves consistency, and delivers real-time performance data.
The company’s COO, Chris Payne, emphasized that 4AG is far beyond a lab experiment. “What sets us apart is real-world experience and system thinking—our robots are already delivering commercial results in the field.”
Mushroom growers face persistent labour shortages, rising costs, and thin margins, with harvesting alone making up as much as 50% of operating expenses in Western markets. The challenge is compounded by the nature of the crop, which doubles in size every 24 hours and must be harvested daily. 4AG’s robotic solution enables farms to stay competitive without overhauling their existing systems.
“We’re not just building robots—we’re building a new operating system for the mushroom industry,” said Michelle Lim, 4AG’s VP of Growth. “Growers want tech that works out of the box, delivers ROI in under three years, and scales globally. That’s what we’ve built.”
With the fresh capital, 4AG Robotics plans to expand its manufacturing footprint in Salmon Arm, grow its customer success and field service teams, and accelerate development of next-generation features such as punnet packing, disease detection, and AI-powered yield optimization.
As the global mushroom market heads toward a projected value of $70 billion by 2030, 4AG Robotics is betting that a small town in British Columbia can become the epicentre of a farming automation revolution.
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