Deere & Company selects five startups to accelerate on-site intelligence and automation

Deere selects five startups to accelerate on-site intelligence

MOLINE, Illinois, Feb 12 (Reuters) — Deere & Company announces five companies for its 2026 John Deere Startup Collaborator Program, aiming to speed deployment of advanced sensing, analytics and automation across agriculture, construction and roadbuilding. The program, launched in 2019 and now in its eighth cohort, picks AIRS ML, IoTag, resonAg, TorqueAGI and Aerobotics for work that ranges from on‑device edge intelligence to drone and mobile imagery powered by computer vision and AI.

The chosen startups bring distinct technical capabilities Deere says will integrate with its machines and services. AIRS ML delivers edge‑AI that fuses sensing and machine learning for real‑time monitoring and predictive maintenance of industrial assets. IoTag provides a patented telematics layer that turns raw machine‑operating data into actionable insights for mixed fleets. Australian firm resonAg adapts sensing technologies from medical, mining and oil & gas sectors into soil‑sensing systems for precision farming. TorqueAGI develops an AI foundation model intended to enable enterprise robots to reason and operate autonomously in the field, while Aerobotics applies drone and mobile imagery with AI to give fruit growers yield estimation and operational optimisation.

Deere executives underscore that the cohort’s complementary strengths — real‑time equipment insights, advanced soil sensing, AI‑driven robotics and digital crop intelligence — help the company move faster to deliver practical innovations that boost precision, productivity and sustainability for customers. The initiative aligns with Deere’s long history of mechanisation and technology adoption dating to the steel plow, and fits the firm’s broader aim of embedding software, sensors and autonomy across its agriculture, construction and forestry product lines.

Program context and industry implications

The Startup Collaborator Program continues as a conduit for startups to validate technology at scale with Deere’s engineering and field teams, shortening the path from prototype to product integration. By focusing on both hardware‑proximate solutions (edge AI and soil sensors) and software‑centric platforms (fleet telematics and AI models), Deere seeks to address immediate operational pain points such as downtime, mixed‑fleet performance and crop decisioning.

Broader industry impact centres on shifting farm and construction workflows toward data‑driven, automated operations. Deere highlights potential gains in predictive maintenance, precision inputs and yield optimisation, and invites stakeholders to learn more at deere.com/en/news/.