Robots Are Now Growing Your Strawberries. Saga Robotics Raises £8.4M to Prove It.

The future of farming doesn’t smell like diesel or fungicides. It hums quietly on batteries and kills disease with UV light. It doesn’t clock in for shifts. It doesn’t care about labor shortages. It just keeps working.

Meet Thorvald — a fleet of autonomous, battery-powered field robots already roaming UK strawberry farms and California vineyards. And now, its creators at Saga Robotics just closed £8.4 million to scale the invasion.

Industrial Ag Has a Problem. Thorvald Is an Answer.

Strawberries and grapes are two of the most chemical-dependent crops on the planet. Fungicides are the rule. Consumers want “clean,” farmers struggle with costs, and regulators are tightening the screws.

Thorvald doesn’t spray.
It uses UV-C light to shut down disease, reducing or replacing chemicals entirely. And because robots don’t get tired, it does it every week, rain or shine.

But the punchline?
It’s also a data machine — mapping crops, predicting yields, and selling the insights back to growers.

Cleaner crops.
Less labor.
More data.
Same fields.
No drama.

What the Money Means

Saga Robotics raised the cash in two drops:

• £6.0M — June 23, 2025
• £2.4M — July 8, 2025

Big believers: Praesidium Agri-FoodTech, backed by returning powerhouses like Aker and Nysnø Climate Investments. The company also sharpened its board with heavy hitters like Laila Danielsen (Elliptic Labs) and observer Alice Laurora (Praesidium).

Not bad for a robot that used to be a university prototype.

Numbers That Matter

• 20% of the UK’s strawberry tabletop market already treated
• Targeting 30%+ in 2026
• 1,300+ acres of California vineyards running Thorvald
• Plan: triple U.S. footprint by 2026
• 150+ robots working this season
• First commercial data revenue launched in 2025
• Approved for California’s CORE incentive funding

A robot fleet. Subsidized. Cleaner farming.
Someone just hacked the ag economy.