SwarmFarm Robotics

SwarmFarm Robotics is an Australian agricultural technology company that designs and manufactures small, lightweight autonomous field robots, marketed as SwarmBots, together with software that the company describes as a new operating system for agriculture. Rather than pursuing progressively larger tractors and harvesters, the company builds simple machines intended to work together in fleets, with the stated aim of reducing machinery costs, chemical use, labour requirements and environmental impact.

The robots are applied to crop protection, including precision and individual weed treatment intended to reduce herbicide volumes, and to mowing and slashing on turf farms and between orchard rows. The company positions its offering as "Integrated Autonomy" and describes an ecosystem built around an autonomous farming platform designed with and for farmers to address farm-specific challenges. Its open platform, SwarmConnect, has been characterised as an "app store for agriculture", letting technology partners develop and deploy crop-specific applications on SwarmFarm machines and giving those partners a route to market; the company has said some partners quadrupled sales through the ecosystem.

SwarmFarm was founded by farmers Andrew and Jocie Bate. Its work began in a paddock in rural Queensland, Australia in 2012, and the company keeps its team based in regional and rural Australia. One third-party investor-marketplace listing gives a founding year of 2011 and lists Campbell Newman as chairman and Neville Crook as director of business development.

Founding story

The company was founded by farmers Andrew and Jocie Bate, with its journey beginning in a paddock in rural Queensland, Australia in 2012. Co-founder Andrew Bate has described the aim as creating new farming systems rather than simply automating existing agriculture.

Business model

SwarmFarm supplies autonomous farm robots to growers and operates an open software platform, SwarmConnect, on which third-party technology providers build crop-specific applications that are deployed on the machines, giving partners a distribution channel to farmers.

Traction

The company reports its robots have logged more than 220,000 operating hours across two million hectares, saving millions of litres of chemicals and reducing labour requirements.

Latest developments

In October 2025 SwarmFarm announced $30 million in Series B funding led by Edaphon, including a $7 million contribution from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation's Powering Australia Technology Fund, alongside QIC and Artesian Capital, to scale its robot fleet and expand into North America. The company is also recruiting for customer support and field service roles.