Acquisition follows years of strategic investment into the businesses by Yamaha
Yamaha Motor has entered into an agreement to acquire the New Zealand based agricultural automation company, Robotics Plus, as well as the Australia-based precision yield management company, The Yield, to form the foundation of a new offshoot.
Through the strategic acquisitions, the new company, Yamaha Agriculture, will deliver autonomous equipment and AI-powered digital solutions to growers of apples and other specialty crops in North America, Australia and New Zealand. It aims to support these growers to become more sustainable, profitable and resilient in the face of scarcer resources and climate change.
Jim Aota, chief strategy officer for Yamaha Motor said establishing Yamaha Agriculture aligns with Yamaha’s global technology roadmap, focusing on advanced energy management, intelligent systems and software-driven solutions.
“With the launch of this new company, we aim to leverage Yamaha’s technological expertise to contribute to sustainable and profitable farming using a customer-centric approach,” Aota said. “Growers will be able to better address challenges around labour shortages, resource scarcity and impacts from climate change.”
Robotics Plus co-founder and chief executive officer Steve Saunders said Robotics Plus was founded on a vision to develop state-of-the-art robotic technology to solve some of the global agriculture industry’s biggest challenges, including labour, productivity and sustainability issues. Its latest development, Prospr, is a robust, autonomous, multi-purpose hybrid vehicle designed to perform a range of orchard and vineyard tasks.
Since 2017, Yamaha Motor has supported Robotics Plus with strategic investment to drive development of agricultural automation technologies and to expand its presence in the agtech sector. Following the acquisition, Robotics Plus will continue to operate its core business at its headquarters in Tauranga New Zealand, while benefiting from the support of Yamaha Agriculture, to grow globally.
“This acquisition is a testament to the strong partnership we’ve built with Yamaha over the years, driven by a shared vision and commitment to empowering large-scale growers,” Saunders said. “Innovations like Prospr are at the heart of Yamaha Agriculture’s global strategy, enabling a data-driven approach to precision agriculture. With Yamaha’s support, we are poised to accelerate our robotics innovations, significantly scale our hardware manufacturing, and expand further into key markets such as the US, and beyond.”
Similarly, Yamaha Motor has been supporting The Yield for some time including leading a NZ$7.13mn funding round in 2020. As a leader in applied AI for agrifood, The Yield provides advanced data analytics and AI-powered models to deliver yield predictions and optimise on and off-farm operations.
The complementary technologies will be integrated to create a comprehensive platform that enables precision farming for growers. By combining autonomous equipment with intelligent data insights, Yamaha Agriculture aims to help growers reduce input costs, optimise resource utilisation and improve overall farm productivity and sustainability.
“Guided by our mission to ensure growers are sustainable, profitable and resilient, Yamaha Agriculture recognises that the challenges facing specialty crop growers require thoughtful solutions that will take time to develop,” said Nolan Paul, group CEO of Yamaha Agriculture. “We believe meaningful innovation in agriculture emerges through close collaboration with growers and industry partners. The capabilities of Robotics Plus in robotics and automation and The Yield in AI-powered analytics represent two important building blocks in addressing these challenges. As we work to bring these technologies together, we are committed to a deliberate approach that prioritises creating real value for growers while maintaining the high standards of quality and reliability for which Yamaha is known.”
