• Bowery Farming, which sells greens and herbs to restaurants and grocery stores as well as via online channels, has announced that it has acquired Traptic, a smart farming startup providing fruit harvesting robots. The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

• Bowery Farming will reportedly be the first vertical farming company to use Traptic’s robotics technology in-house to accelerate the commercialization of fruiting and vine crops. 

• More specifically, Traptic’s technology, expertise, and know-how will support Bowery’s plans to commercially grow strawberries by Q2 2022. Traptic’s harvesting robots are also expected to support Bowery in harvesting other crops such as tomatoes and basil and for other applications including pruning, thinning, and pollination. Bowery Farming also reported that Traptic’s technology can be easily integrated into its proprietary control software “BoweryOS” and existing robotics systems.

• Post-acquisition, Traptic’s computer vision, robotics, and engineering team will join Bowery Farming to support the development and integration of 3D vision and robotics across the latter’s farms. Additionally, the CEO of Traptic, Lewis Anderson, will lead Bowery Farming’s Robotics Solutions team.

Analyst QuickTake: Bowery Farming appears to be taking necessary efforts to be the first company to commercially produce fruits such as strawberries and tomatoes vertically in a space where herbs and leafy greens have been the dominant produce types. The acquisition allows Bowery Farming to compete with Infarm, who also reported plans last year to introduce similar crop s. The acquisition also follows Bowery’s raise of  USD 150 million credit facility in January this year to open two new smart vertical farms in Texas and Georgia by Q1 2023.