Canadian company 4AG Robotics believes the solution to mushroom farming's labor challenge lies in automation. With labor costs making up more than 40 percent of production in Western markets and the global sector projected to surpass $70 billion by 2030, the industry is under pressure to adapt. Backed by a $40 million CAD Series B financing co-led by Cibus Capital and Astanor, 4AG is moving from proof-of-concept to large-scale deployment.
"In the next 12–18 months, we're focused on three major milestones," says Sean O'Connor, CEO of 4AG Robotics. "We want to prove that our 24-hour harvesting robots can not only help fill in for the growing labor shortages in the mushroom industry, but also increase the farm's yield and quality of mushrooms. We are also launching next-generation capabilities, including punnet packing and AI-driven yield optimization, while expanding our deployments in North America, Europe, and Australia."
O'Connor explains that feature development is driven by customer demand and ROI impact. "Punnet packing is high on the list because it solves a major labor bottleneck at the farm and integrates directly into existing retail supply chains. AI-driven yield optimization and disease detection are in parallel development. The cool part about our technology is that mushroom farms go through an entire flush each week. You can directly review the data from rooms with robots against the traditional rooms, all of which were filled and harvested on the same dates."
© 4AG Robotics
4AG Robotics CEO, Sean O'Connor
Technical breakthroughs in delicacy and speed
Mushrooms grow at roughly four percent per hour, creating unique demands for automation. "They're the most delicate crop in the produce aisle, so you have to pick them a specific way or you'll damage them," says O'Connor. "Building robots that could pick as fast, or faster, than human beings, without damaging mushrooms, required a thousand small breakthroughs over the last six years to build the robot we have today. We could write a novel on the work needed to perfect the suction cup, never mind the whole robot."
The system is designed to adapt across varieties, growing conditions, and infrastructure. "Our AI models are trained on large datasets collected from multiple farms around the world. The system continuously learns on-site, refining picking strategy in real time to accommodate differences in mushroom size, density, and quality targets. We're starting to get to the point where the system can recognize the error in either the mushroom or the execution of harvesting, and make adjustments."
Watch: The Forager HX800 picking, trimming, and packing mushrooms into punnets using AI and computer vision.
A digital twin of the crop
Every robot pass generates data on mushroom size, growth rate, density, and quality, effectively creating what O'Connor describes as a "digital twin" of the crop. "We see a mushroom every 30 to 90 minutes over its entire growing life, and then record its size and quality at the time of picking. We're not doing a whole lot with this data today, but as we expand our AI team coming out of this financing, I'm excited to see what mushroom growers want to do with this data to help with their growing decisions."
Grower demand is strong. "We're sold out until early next year," O'Connor says. "That being said, there are still skeptics in the mushroom industry who are looking to wait until automation is ubiquitous, and then they'll see if they can adopt technology before they're consolidated. Changing how you manage a farm is a big step for many growers, and I expect there will still be quite a few that hold on to their traditional harvesting methods."
© 4AG Robotics
ROI and the investor view
"Once fully optimized, our robots deliver a cost per kilogram that is highly competitive with, and often lower than, human harvesting, especially in high-wage regions," says O'Connor. "Customers typically see payback within 12–36 months, depending on how quickly they can realize yield gains, and their current cost of labor."
At Cibus Capital, the appeal of 4AG Robotics lay in its timing. "We invest at a stage where the technology has been significantly de-risked, but there remains significant operational execution risk," says Archie Burgess, Investment Director at Cibus Capital. "4AG is in this sweet spot for us: a fantastic management team with a product, the robots, that are now harvesting up to one million mushrooms per week in a commercial setting, whilst also having a significant order backlog as they navigate the manufacturing scale-up phase."
Burgess believes adoption will accelerate quickly.
© Montfort" At some point in the next 12 months, I believe 4AG will deliver a 'ChatGPT moment' for its customers, and the value proposition will become undeniable. Labor makes up roughly 40 percent of the cost of a mushroom and represents the greatest challenge on a farm. 4AG's robots will allow almost complete labor replacement, while also increasing yields and improving quality."
He points to future features such as real-time disease detection and predictive yields as adding even greater value. "Mushroom farms that embrace this technology will become more profitable and streamlined." For Cibus, the investment is part of a broader thesis. "We view 4AG as part of our deep focus on precision agriculture, using the latest technologies to optimize inputs for maximum efficiency. 4AG is a core part of this thesis, a scalable technology enabling the growing mushroom industry, one of the most sustainable crop practices, to thrive."
Pictured right: Archie Burgess
Focused on mushrooms, while eyeing more crops
O'Connor is clear that the immediate priority is to dominate mushroom harvesting. "Becoming the global leader in automating mushroom harvesting will make us a billion-dollar business. That being said, so few companies have replaced the human hand in picking a crop, and we believe we have the team and IP that can solve other challenges. For today, we're staying hyper-focused on mushrooms. In the future, I expect we'll start adding more crops to our global focus."
The Series B was co-led by Cibus Capital and Astanor, with support from Voyager Capital, InBC, Emmertech, BDC Industrial Innovation Fund, Jim Richardson Family Office, and Stray Dog Capital. Together with the $17.5 million raised in 2023, this brings 4AG's total funding to $57.5 million in the past two years.
For more information: 
Cibus Capital
Charles Barnes, Strategic Communications
[email protected] / [email protected]
www.cibusfund.com / www.montfort.london
4AG Robotics 
Michelle Lim, VP Growth
[email protected]
www.4ag.ai