Zordi secures investment to advance robotic dexterity in agriculture

Zordi announced on Thursday, May 1, that it recently secured investments from Khosla Ventures, Shinhan Ventures, Yanmar Ventures, DSC Investment, and Tech Council Ventures. This funding marks a pivotal moment in Zordi's evolution as the company pushes the frontier of robotic dexterity through large-scale deployment of Robotics Foundation Models (RFMs) in agriculture.

With this investment, Zordi is expanding its efforts in precision manipulation—bringing human-level dexterity to machines through innovative learning-based approaches.

From scouting to picking: Learning-based robotic platform
While Zordi's greenhouse platform already features autonomous scouting and harvesting robots, this new phase of development deepens the company's focus on dexterous manipulation. Inspired by foundational progress in AI, Zordi is developing next-generation RFMs tailored to fine manipulation tasks, enabling robots to quickly learn to care for plants and handle soft fruits like strawberries with care and efficiency previously exclusive to human workers.

Khosla Ventures, known for early bets on transformative technologies including OpenAI and Physical Intelligence, brings not only capital but a long-term commitment to both Zordi and breakthrough innovation. Zordi's technology is on track to reduce labor costs by up to 80% while increasing consistency and crop quality. With fine robotic manipulation now in its sights, Zordi aims to deliver even greater economic value while addressing long-standing constraints in horticultural labor.

Yanmar Ventures joins the round as a strategic investor aligned with Zordi's mission of sustainable food production. Already announced as a partner for the upcoming F&A Next conference in the Netherlands, Yanmar will highlight its investment in Zordi as part of its broader push into advanced AgTech.

"Zordi represents the kind of deep tech solution that can reshape how we think about agriculture—making it more efficient, adaptive, and resilient," said Ana Ward of Yanmar Ventures. "We are excited to help bring this vision to more markets globally."