Aigen
Seattle, US · Founded 2021 · Delaware corporation · 45 employees on LinkedIn · 9 known investors
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Aigen builds solar-powered autonomous field robots ("Element") that use AI vision to identify and mechanically remove weeds without chemicals. The robot crews operate in coordinated mesh networks for farmers managing crop fields.
Also known as Aigen Element · Aigen Robotics
Founders & leadership
Aigen was founded in 2021 by Richard Wurden and Kenny Lee.
Board
Investors · 9
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Also in the syndicate · 3
Reported raises · per SEC filings
Form D private placements$22.7M disclosed across 4 rounds · 2021–2025
▶$4.7MraisedAug 2025 · 6 investors · Other TechnologyRule 506(b)
- Dan FitzgeraldDirector
- Richard WurdenExecutive Officer, Director
- Andrew SchoenDirector
- Kenny LeeExecutive Officer, Director
- Offering amount
- $10M
- Amount sold
- $4.7M
- First sale
- Aug 2025
- Incorporated
- Corporation, Delaware, 2021
- Federal exemptions
- 06b
▶$11.2MraisedOct 2023 · 28 investors · Other TechnologyRule 506(b)
- Richard WurdenExecutive Officer, Director
- Dan FitzgeraldDirector
- Kenny LeeExecutive Officer, Director
- Andrew SchoenDirector
- Offering amount
- $15M
- Amount sold
- $11.2M
- First sale
- Sep 2023
- Incorporated
- Corporation, Delaware, 2021
- Federal exemptions
- 06b
▶$2.9MraisedApr 2022 · 23 investors · Other TechnologyRule 506(b)
- Henry MagunDirector
- Andrew SchoenDirector
- Richard WurdenExecutive Officer, Director
- Kenny LeeExecutive Officer, Director
- Offering amount
- $3M
- Amount sold
- $2.9M
- First sale
- Apr 2022
- Incorporated
- Corporation, Delaware, 2021
- Federal exemptions
- 06b
▶$4MraisedDec 2021 · 8 investors · Other TechnologyRule 506(b)
- Henry MagunDirector
- Richard WurdenExecutive Officer, Director
- Kenny LeeDirector
- Andrew SchoenDirector
- Offering amount
- $4M
- Amount sold
- $4M
- First sale
- Dec 2021
- Incorporated
- Corporation, Delaware, 2021
- Federal exemptions
- 06b
Source: SEC EDGAR Form D. Amounts as filed; amended filings shown once at their latest values.
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Aigen develops self-sustaining outdoor robots for agriculture. Its flagship platform, Element, is a solar- and battery-powered, all-wheel-drive machine designed to operate autonomously outdoors from dawn to dusk without refueling, charging cables, a driver or a remote operator. Robots coordinate over a mesh network to cover ground automatically and use sensors, cameras and machine learning models to identify individual plants; two robotic arms with blades mechanically strike and remove weeds, offering an alternative to chemical herbicides. While working, the robots also analyze crops and feed field data back to growers, and the company has described a low-energy AI model that sends real-time crop information to a farmer's mobile app.
The company frames its platform as a closed-loop system for data collection, analytics and action, and positions itself around soil health as well as weed control: by removing the need for fuel and chemical inputs, it argues field operations can reduce emissions and soil degradation. In 2025 Aigen introduced Alchemy, described as a world model for outdoor physical AI: the fleet captures vision, depth, position, action and outcome data during normal work, Alchemy trains world models and generates new scenarios from that field data, and improvements are propagated across the fleet so learning from one robot benefits others. The company presents the Element platform as applicable beyond farming to other outdoor and site work.
Founding story
Co-founders Kenny Lee (CEO) and Rich Wurden (CTO) met on the climate-focused Work on Climate Slack community and founded the company in 2020. Both have personal experience with health conditions they link to pesticide exposure, and combined backgrounds in farming, electric vehicles, robotics and impact investing motivated a chemical-free approach to crop protection. Lee previously worked in cybersecurity and co-founded Weblife.io, acquired in 2017; Wurden was a senior engineer at Pure Watercraft and a mechanical engineer at Tesla.
Business model
Aigen sells and reserves Element robots and offers a robotics service to farmers, with its website inviting customers to reserve Elements or request a demo. Press coverage describes a robotics service deployed across farmland acreage alongside data and crop-insight software delivered to growers.
Revenue is associated with Element robot orders and a per-farm robotics service; pre-orders for the Element were reported as a demand signal, with 2024 and 2025 allocations selling out in one day and reported sold-out demand for the following two to three years.
Traction
Robots were tested with customers in North Dakota through the 2023 growing season, with a wide US launch planned for 2024 across more than 20,000 acres starting in April. Element pre-orders for 2024 and 2025 sold out in one day, and the company later reported sold-out demand for two to three years. Aigen has raised $19 million to date, employs roughly 21-50 people, was featured in Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies in Agriculture for 2024, and was selected for the IRCAI/AWS 2025 Compute for Climate Fellowship.
Latest developments
The company's site now leads with Alchemy, a world model built on data captured by its robot fleet, alongside the Element platform positioned for agriculture and other outdoor sites, with reservations and demo requests open. In July 2025 Aigen was named to the IRCAI and AWS 2025 Compute for Climate Fellowship cohort.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
Aigen positions Element as agricultural robotics relying on solar as the primary energy source, distinguishing it from diesel-powered or plug-in autonomous weeding systems. It is one of several Seattle-area agtech robotics companies; coverage compares it with Carbon Robotics, which sells laser weeding robots, and notes TerraClear in adjacent field automation.
Fully renewable, solar-primary energy so robots can stay in the field without refueling or charging; mechanical rather than chemical weed removal; fleet-level coordination over a mesh network; and a shared data engine that transfers autonomy improvements across the fleet.
Technology
Solar panels plus battery storage power an all-terrain, all-wheel-drive robot; the panels also act as sails to use farm winds. Onboard cameras, sensors and computer-vision/machine-learning models perform plant-level identification and precision strikes using blades mounted on two robotic arms. Robots run up to about 14 hours continuously, navigate autonomously and coordinate through a mesh network. Field data feeds Alchemy, the company's world-model and data-engine layer for training autonomy and generating simulated scenarios, plus cloud/MLOps and low-energy on-device AI for delivering crop insights.
Go-to-market
Direct sales and pre-orders/reservations of Element units with demo requests through the company website, supported by on-farm pilots with customers, and staged geographic and crop expansion from an initial region and crop toward multiple crops.
Row-crop and commodity farmers in the United States, with initial focus on sugar beet growers in the Red River Valley region facing herbicide-resistant weeds; the company also markets the platform to other outdoor industries.
Geography
United States; offices reported in Kirkland and Redmond, Washington, with field deployments in North Dakota's Red River Valley region and a stated presence in one operating region.
History
Founded in 2020, Aigen raised a $4 million seed round led by NEA in 2022 and opened a headquarters in Kirkland, Washington. It ran customer testing in North Dakota on sugar beets during the 2023 season, unveiled the Element robot, and in October 2023 closed a $12 million Series A led by ReGen Ventures, bringing total funding to $19 million. It then built a 7,500-square-foot manufacturing and R&D facility with capacity for 3,000 robots per year and planned a broader US launch in 2024, with plans to cover multiple crops by 2025. In 2025 the company introduced Alchemy, extending its focus toward world models for outdoor physical AI.
Risks & controversies
Investor disclosures note that AgFunder, parent of the outlet reporting two of its rounds, is an investor in Aigen. Business risks referenced in coverage include hardware manufacturing scale-up against sold-out pre-order demand, the need for further development before wide release, and cyclical agtech funding conditions.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Competitors · 1
by search overlap
Companies competing with Aigen for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.
Timeline · 9
launches, deals, and filingsNamed among 23 startups selected by IRCAI and AWS for the 2025 Compute for Climate Fellowship.
Aigen introduced Alchemy, a world model for outdoor physical AI trained on vision, depth, position, action and outcome data captured by its robot fleet.
Aigen planned to debut its Element robotics service on more than 20,000 acres of US farmland beginning April 2024 for weed control and farming insights.
Featured in Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies in Agriculture for 2024.
Series A to scale the Element robot fleet for a wide US launch in 2024 and to build a manufacturing and R&D facility; total raised reported at $19M.
$12M source ↗
Aigen began building a 7,500-square-foot manufacturing and R&D facility with capacity for 3,000 robots per year, with a planned move-in by January.
The Element robot, with two robotic arms that mechanically remove weeds and up to 14 hours of continuous operation, was unveiled; the company said 2024 and 2025 pre-orders sold out in one day.
Company set to open new headquarters in Kirkland, Washington following its seed round.
Seed financing led by New Enterprise Associates with AgFunder, Global Founders Capital and ReGen Ventures; capital earmarked mainly for hiring and a new headquarters in Kirkland, Washington.
$4M source ↗
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
Legal entities · 1
corporate structureIn the news
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- Aigenaigen.io · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Aigen do?
- Aigen builds solar-powered autonomous robots that use AI vision to remove weeds mechanically, replacing chemical herbicides.
- Who founded Aigen?
- Aigen was founded by Richard Wurden, Kenny Lee in 2021.
- Who are Aigen's investors?
- Aigen's investors include Cleveland Avenue, Industrious Ventures, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), AgFunder, Global Founders Capital, ReGen Ventures.
- How much funding has Aigen raised?
- Aigen has disclosed $22.7M raised across 4 rounds.
- Where is Aigen headquartered?
- Aigen is headquartered in Seattle, US.