A startup says its night-running UV robots can stand in for strawberry sprays

SANTA MARIA, Calif., August 2025 — A robotics startup is selling strawberry farmers a nightly light treatment instead of a machine. Here's what launched, what it cost, and what went wrong.

Cost and outcome (as of July 30, 2025, all per TRIC)

Acres treated: "well over 1,000 acres here in Santa Maria," Stager said. (AgFunderNews)
Fleet: nine machines running and three more in production; the goal is 40 to 50. (AgFunderNews)
Coverage: about 30 acres a night per robot. (AgFunderNews)
Price to growers: a service that "replaces what they currently do for the same price but works better," per Stager. No dollar figure. (AgFunderNews)

What the robot does

Stager said he started from USDA research showing ultraviolet light could replace chemicals against fungal pathogens and mite eggs. "UV-C light damages their DNA so they can't replicate," he told AgFunderNews. The robots run at night because daytime UVA light helps repair that damage.

Luna is "like a big tractor with six-foot-tall tires powered by diesel," Stager said. The diesel engine drives an alternator that powers the lights. In 2025, TRIC added vacuums after a farmer asked it to take over that twice-weekly job as well. The machine navigates by GPS, cameras and wheel encoders, following a map of each farm. It stays on the farm all season, since growers apply the light about twice a week.

Why strawberries

"More chemicals are used on strawberries than on any other fruit or vegetable," Stager said. "Farmers are finding that the chemicals don't work as well, so they have to use more, and then there are the labor challenges," he told AgFunderNews (AgFunderNews). He said 90% of U.S. strawberries are grown in California, in three regions within driving distance of TRIC's office. He named Dutch firm CleanLight and Norway's Saga Robotics as other UV players, mostly in greenhouses, tabletop strawberries and vineyards.

The business model

TRIC owns the fleet and sells treatments. Stager said strawberry farmers are smaller than leafy-greens growers and are "not sitting on a million dollars of discretionary" capital. "If we were to sell a million-dollar piece of equipment, we'd only have a couple of customers," he said. Owning the machines lets TRIC add services without the farmer buying new ones. Next in the pipeline, he said, is releasing beneficial insects, which are bugs or mites that prey on pests, from the same robots.

The money and the plan

AgFunderNews said Version One Ventures led the $5.5 million seed round. Garage Capital, Valor Equity Partners and others joined, as did angels including the founders of Clearpath Robotics. Existing investors Undeterred Capital, Embark Ventures, Soundboard Venture Fund and Central Coast Ventures also took part.

Stager said the money would scale the fleet and take it to farms in Oxnard and Watsonville, so TRIC can work all three California strawberry regions. "We're not doing a high tech science project anymore, we are a commercial company," he said. He said there is "a 10x revenue opportunity" with current customers and "a billion-dollar opportunity" as services are added. Those are his projections.

How the trials grew

TRIC started in 2021 with half-acre plots, Stager said. Farmers feared that pests in a test section could take down a whole field. Plots grew to five, 10 and 20 acres, then a 50-acre split of chemical and UV treatment. "You can visibly see the difference," he said, including in satellite imagery. TRIC did not publish that comparison.

What went wrong

No independent data. The acreage, efficacy and pricing figures are Stager's.
No named growers. AgFunderNews did not identify customers.
Diesel power. The chemical-free pitch runs on diesel machines.
What we don't know yet: results by pest, cost per acre and whether yields change.

Our follow-up question for TRIC Robotics

Will TRIC publish the 50-acre chemical-versus-UV comparison, with yields?

Later developments (added Oct. 2026)

In an Aug. 31, 2026 AgFunderNews interview, Stager said TRIC had treated more than 1,500 acres of commercial strawberries that year with 15 machines running nightly. He said a California Strawberry Center case study found the vacuum "alone pays for both the vacuum and the light service." We did not find that study. (AgFunderNews)
TRIC's website says published research shows "up to 97% spider mite egg suppression." That is TRIC's summary; we did not read the paper. (TRIC Robotics)

Sources

AgFunderNews, Elaine Watson, “Armed with fresh funds, TRIC Robotics plans aggressive fleet expansion across CA's strawberry fields,” July 30, 2025. agfundernews.com
Future Farming, “Robots armed with vacuums and UV light battle pests in California strawberries,” Aug. 25, 2025 (paywalled; headline only). futurefarming.com
AgFunderNews, Elaine Watson, “TRIC Robotics scales to 1,500 strawberry acres with 15-robot fleet,” Aug. 31, 2026. agfundernews.com
TRIC Robotics website, accessed Oct. 25, 2026. tricrobotics.com

Disclosure: [not in copy] Editor placeholder