Nearly all staff are based in New Zealand, clustered around the Bay of Plenty, bar three in the United States and two in Japan.
There are big plans. Yamaha will make Robotics Plus the foundation of the newly launched US-based company Yamaha Agriculture.
Saunders said the deal would help Robotics Plus boost its manufacturing and push further into the US and other markets.
“Scale is the key to making technology more accessible and affordable for growers in New Zealand and beyond,” he said.
The company’s flagship, the Prospr multi-use autonomous vehicle launched in 2023, sells for US$245,000 to US$300,000 ($427,000-$523,000) depending on configurations and tree crop, with Robotics Plus recommending customers buy a minimum of two. Up to four can be controlled by one person on a phone or tablet, connecting to the vehicles over cellular or Wi-Fi.
ACC (no longer on the share register) was an early backer from a fund that made investments of $2m to $15m. In 2018, Yamaha Motor spent US$8m (then $12m) to buy a 15% stake in Robotics Plus, implying a private equity valuation of just under $100m.
Robotics Plus also received just over $1m in grants from the soon-to-be-extinct Callaghan Innovation (the Crown agency’s grants do not have to be repaid in the event of an offshore sale if the new owner keeps research and development in NZ).
The Japanese firm remained the only outside investor, according to the latest Companies Office update for Robotics Plus (dated April 2), with the founders holding the balance.
The Technology Investment Network’s annual TIN200 list of New Zealand’s largest tech exporters estimated Robotics Plus’ 2024 revenue at $13.5m.
The Robotics Plus story began when Scarfe, an engineer with a PhD in industrial automation from Massey, established a partnership with Saunders, who was then managing director of Plus Group Horticulture and a 10-year Rockit Global veteran.
At the time of Yamaha’s initial investment in 2018, Saunders said his firm had 28 staff. “We are revenue earning, but we are an early-stage growth company heavily investing in R&D, so our burn rate is slightly higher than revenue”.
Horticultural robotics has been billed as a way to address labour shortages, but Robotics Plus vehicles are also packed with sensors to aid “precision agriculture”. An app can help plan and track multiple vehicles’ progress.
Saunders, who has been in horticulture for more than 35 years, said he foresaw labour problems arising in horticulture 10 years ago, particularly in the speciality crops.
The CEO said Prospr included automated intelligent spraying.
This allows growers to deploy a range of spray configurations, with tower sprayers for grapes, apples, or tree crops already available.
Spray rates and air speed are dynamic and controlled in zones or by individual fans to maximise spray efficacy and enable a more targeted application than traditional sprayers.
Robotics Plus’ line-up also includes the Aporo Fruit Packer, which automates fruit packing, and a robotic scaler that accurately measures the volume of timber for logging trucks or trains.
Overseas buyers snap up NZ tech firms
The pandemic and post-pandemic years have brought a flurry of offshore sales, including retail software firm Vend’s $455m sale to Canada’s Lightspeed, geo-modelling software firm Seequent’s $1.45b sale to Nasdaq-listed Bentley Systems, Grinding Gear Games’ $100m-plus sale to China’s Tencent, veterinary practice management software maker ezyVet’s $216m sale to Nasdaq-listed IDEXX Laboratories, salon appointment software maker Timely’s $100m-plus sale to the Silver Lake-backed EverCommerce, NZX-listed Pushpay’s $1.53b sale to a private equity consortium lead by a US firm, mobile game developer Ninja Kiwi’s $203m sale to a Scandinavian buyer, e-commerce player Cin7’s $133m sale to US private equity firm Rubicon, breast cancer screening software firm Volpara’s $322m sale to a Korean rival, Hawaiki Cable’s circa $500m sale to Singapore’s BW Group and the $2.2b sale of Wētā Digital’s technology division to US-based Unity Software (a deal that would later unravel as Unity hit financial strife).
Other deals have included Tradify’s $100m-plus sale to the UK’s Access Group, US private equity giant KKR took majority control of Dunedin’s Education Perfect in a mid-2021 transaction that valued the Kiwi firm at $455m, and Boston Ventures taking a majority stake in Auckland-based education software firm Kami at a $300m valuation.
The VC industry and founders say it’s made the local scene stronger as profits from the sales have been fed back into the local ecosystem to fund a new wave of start-ups. Buyers have often expanded New Zealand workforces and helped the companies expand globally.
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.
