Autonomous harvesting could soon become a far more familiar sight across British soft fruit farms after Cambridge-based agritech company Fieldwork Robotics secured £3m in fresh investment and grant funding to accelerate commercial trials of its raspberry-picking robots.
The funding package includes a £2.2m investment round led by Elbow Beach Capital, alongside additional grant backing, including support linked to Innovate UK programmes aimed at advancing on-farm adoption of new technologies.
Fieldwork Robotics said the new backing marks a major step in its transition from technology validation to large-scale commercial deployment, with the company now preparing a two-year harvesting-as-a-service programme on farms in Norfolk and Staffordshire.
The trials will involve deployments with Place UK in Norfolk and Littywood Farm in Staffordshire, allowing growers to assess how autonomous harvesting systems perform under real commercial operating conditions, including logistics, infrastructure and day-to-day reliability.
Subject to successful trials, Fieldwork expects fleets of berry-picking robots to begin operating commercially on farms from 2027, with additional international trials planned in Portugal and Australia.
The company’s technology has been developed in response to mounting labour pressures facing berry growers worldwide, including rising harvesting costs, seasonal labour shortages and wider supply chain disruption.
Fieldwork says its autonomous harvesting systems are designed to reduce reliance on manual picking while helping growers improve productivity, reduce waste and protect operating margins.
David Fulton, chief executive of Fieldwork Robotics, said the company was now entering its “scale-up phase”.
“We are excited to demonstrate how our autonomous raspberry harvesting robots can boost productivity, protect grower margins, and deliver sustainable harvesting solutions in the UK and globally,” he said.
The investment also represents another significant milestone for the UK agritech and robotics sector, which continues to attract growing attention as automation becomes increasingly central to future food production strategies.
Industry experts have long highlighted robotics and autonomous systems as a critical part of agriculture’s future, particularly as growers face mounting pressures linked to labour availability, sustainability and food security.
However, harvesting delicate soft fruit remains one of the sector’s most technically challenging automation tasks. Researchers have previously noted that robotic berry harvesting systems still face major hurdles in matching the precision and adaptability of human pickers without damaging fruit quality.
Fieldwork believes its AI-enabled robotic systems can overcome many of those barriers by using advanced sensing and machine learning technologies to identify and selectively harvest ripe fruit.
Elbow Beach Capital chief executive Jon Pollock said the latest investment reflected growing confidence in the commercial potential of the technology.
“This round reflects our confidence in the team and their innovative technology, which tackles labour shortages, eases inflationary pressures, and meets the growing demand for automation in the sector,” he said.
For UK growers grappling with escalating labour costs and ongoing recruitment uncertainty, the success or failure of these next commercial trials could offer a clearer indication of whether robotic harvesting is finally ready to move from futuristic concept to everyday farm infrastructure.
