Carbon Robotics
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
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Sections to complete：02 · 05
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Carbon Robotics is a Seattle-based agricultural robotics company founded in 2018 by Paul Mikesell (previously founder of Clustrix, acquired by MariaDB). Its flagship product, the LaserWeeder, uses computer vision and AI to identify and kill weeds with high-powered lasers, cutting weed-control costs by up to 80%. It has raised $157 million in total, including a $70 million round in October 2024 led by BOND with NVIDIA's venture arm NVentures, and sells to farmers in the US, Europe and Australia, also offering a monitoring system, companion app and LaserThinning capability.
02 / FAILURE REASONS
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03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Founded
Founded in Seattle by Paul Mikesell to build AI robotics for farming.
- LaserWeeder deployed
Deployed the LaserWeeder commercially and added a $30 million financing; participated in the inaugural FIRA-USA ag-robotics event.
- $70M raise
Raised $70 million to expand manufacturing in eastern Washington and roll out new software and hardware products, with BOND and NVentures joining; customers across the US, Europe and Australia; opened a 24,000 sq. ft. manufacturing plant in Richland, Washington.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
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Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN / AFTERMATH
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