TRIC Robotics
About
About TRIC Robotics
TRIC Robotics builds and operates autonomous crop-protection robots for strawberry growers. Its Luna platform travels through fields at night, applying ultraviolet-C light to suppress disease and mite egg hatch while an integrated vacuum removes insects. Growers receive a managed service that includes deployment, monitoring and maintenance, allowing treatment programmes to fit around daytime field work.
Luna covers six to eight rows and is designed for programmes spanning roughly 50 to 100 acres per robot. The company reports more than 1,500 acres of commercial California strawberry fields treated. Independent Cal Poly research used TRIC's EDEN and LUNA platforms to evaluate mite control, finding strong effects on eggs while documenting limits against mobile life stages at practical doses. A $5.5 million seed round led by Version One Ventures in July 2025 supported fleet expansion and further crop applications.
Deployments
- Operating use
2025-07-23 - TRIC Robotics had deployed nine autonomous UV-C crop-treatment robots across four large strawberry producers, with three additional robots in preparation. - TRIC-operated agricultural robotics-as-a-service fleet - Commercial strawberry farms
Source - Commercial activity
2026-09-21 - TRIC Robotics reports that its autonomous UV-C and Bug Vacuum platforms have treated more than 1,500 acres of commercial California strawberry fields. - Commercial California strawberry fields - Commercial strawberry fields
Source
Funding
- 2025-07-23 - Seed - $5.5M - TRIC Robotics raises USD 5.5 million seed round
TRIC Robotics raised a USD 5.5 million seed round led by Version One Ventures to expand its autonomous UV-treatment fleet for specialty crops. - source: techcrunch.com
Investors
- Central Coast Ventures - Participant - VC - 1 funding event - first seen 2025-07-23
- Embark Ventures - Participant - VC - 1 funding event - first seen 2025-07-23
- Garage Capital - Participant - VC - 1 funding event - first seen 2025-07-23
- Lucas Venture Group - Participant - VC - 1 funding event - first seen 2025-07-23
- Redstick Ventures - Participant - VC - 1 funding event - first seen 2025-07-23
- Shep Investments - Participant - Angel / Individual - 1 funding event - first seen 2025-07-23
- SoundBoard Venture Fund - Participant - VC - 1 funding event - first seen 2025-07-23
- Spacecadet - Participant - Unknown - 1 funding event - first seen 2025-07-23
- Todd & Rahul Capital - Participant - VC - 1 funding event - first seen 2025-07-23
- Undeterred Capital - Participant - VC - 1 funding event - first seen 2025-07-23
- Valor Equity Partners - Participant - VC - 1 funding event - first seen 2025-07-23
- Version One Ventures - Lead - VC - 1 funding event - first seen 2025-07-23
Team
- Adam Stager - Co-founder and CEO - As co-founder and CEO, Stager led TRIC’s move to an overnight robotics-as-a-service model for strawberry growers.
- Vishnu Somasundaram - Co-founder and field operations lead - As a co-founder and field-operations leader, Somasundaram connects robot design with commercial strawberry-field operation.
- Ryan Berard - Co-founder and engineering lead - Berard leads engineering work and coordinates with TRIC’s manufacturing partner to build robots to the company’s specifications.
Timeline
Events
- 2025-07-23 - Funding - TRIC Robotics raises USD 5.5 million seed round
Version One Ventures led the round, with Garage Capital, Todd and Rahul Capital, Lucas Venture Group and other investors participating. TRIC planned to use the financing to build more autonomous robots and expand beyond strawberries into additional crops. At the announcement, nine robots served four large strawberry producers, with three more units in development.
Source - 2022-09-01 - Award - USDA awards TRIC Robotics USD 650,000 agricultural-robotics grant
The project began on 1 September 2022 under grant 2022-39411-38290 and ran through February 2025. TRIC used autonomous multirow robots to test uniform UV-C dosing as a non-chemical alternative for pest and disease control. The programme evaluated commercial viability, treatment coverage and crop response in working strawberry environments.
Source
Relations
Relationships
- Betteravia Farms
Deployment Partner - TRIC provides autonomous crop-protection treatments in Betteravia Farms strawberry production.
- USDA NIFA
Grant Provider - USDA NIFA awarded TRIC Robotics a USD 650,000 agricultural-robotics grant.
Context
Context tags
- Crop disease control - Workflow - https://tricrobotics.com/about-us/ -- Overnight UV-C disease and pest management for commercial strawberry fields; shared crop-care workflow, not identical robot hardware.
- Chemical-free crop treatment - Capability - https://tricrobotics.com/about-us/ -- UV-C and bug-vacuum treatments are non-chemical crop-care mechanisms; not laser weeding, spraying or harvesting.