The round was led by angel investors and included Brain Robotics Capital LLC, a fund focused on science-backed companies in the AI, Robotics, and IoT industries.

The funding will be used to further develop American Robotics' integrated drone system for commercial farming and to expand the team. This is the first seed round for the company, founded by alumni from Carnegie Mellon and Stanford universities, which will pilot its product this summer.

The US agricultural industry loses billions of dollars of crops annually to preventable problems and spends billions in chemicals, water, and other inputs fighting this loss. In 2012, $17.5 billion of crops were lost to due to drought and heat damage alone. Furthermore, every year US farmers lose 12 percent of their crops to pests and another 12 percent to disease. Traditional scouting solutions are not adequate and agtech is looking to automation and big data to improve agricultural decision-making and yields.

"Our mission is to expand the possibilities of precision agriculture," said Reese Mozer, Co-Founder and CEO of American Robotics. "Farmers are looking to automation to help tackle the issue of producing more food to support the growing population in a more sustainable way. To do that, they need a reliable tool. We are employing cutting-edge automation, intelligence, and an IIoT mindset to develop a practical, turn-key solution."

"There are many drone companies in the world, and it's no surprise that it is a red ocean market," said Pei Qi, Founding & Managing Partner, Brain Robotics Capital. "American Robotics is one of very few who can provide a real full stack of solutions for a very specific application field. More importantly the team understands the business rather than just the technology. That's why we believe they can define the new standard in agriculture."

American Robotics is based in the MassRobotics collaboration space in Boston, an emerging hub for robotics startups.

About American Robotics
Headquartered in Boston, MA, American Robotics is developing a practical drone system for commercial farming that will expand the possibilities of precision farming. To learn more about American Robotics visit www.american-robotics.com and connect on Twitter and LinkedIn.