The brief

Analyst view

• Each Tevel system uses eight drone arms tethered to a ground cart to navigate fruit tree canopies and gently pick ripe fruit.
• Deployed commercially in California (HMC Farms), Chile (Unifrutti), and Italy (Rivoira Group), reducing labor costs by up to 50%.
• Series C $18M in Mar 2026; total $55M+ from Kubota, Sound Media, Maverick Ventures, AgFunder.

Technical approach

As reported

Flying pickers

Tethered drone arms navigate the canopy

Eight arms tether to a ground cart for power and control, navigating dense canopies where ground robots cannot reach.

Vision and AI

Computer vision finds ripe fruit

Cameras and AI algorithms identify ripe fruit among leaves and branches, calculate grip force to avoid bruising, and pick only when the fruit is ready.

Speed and labor

50% labor cost reduction

The system works continuously and can harvest trees faster than humans on ladders, addressing acute fruit-picker labor shortages in many regions.