Upside Robotics reduces fertilizer use and damage to corn plants

Founders a Upside Robotics they met in 2023 because they both look to create a company that is concerned with climate and agriculture. Less than a year later, they were camping on the side of a cornfield in Canada building their first robots.

Waterloo, Ontario-based Upside Robotics makes lightweight, solar-powered robots that deliver just-in-time fertilizer and nutrients to crops. The company’s software uses proprietary algorithms to determine when and how much fertilizer plants need based on climate and soil conditions.

Upside’s robots are currently working on corn plants – one of the crops that use the most fertilizer – which was chosen by Upside for its specific purpose, Jana Tian, ​​founder and CEO, told TechCrunch.

Tian and Sam Dugan, co-founder and chief technology officer, met with the Entrepreneur First accelerator, decided to focus on reducing fertilizer waste using robots because it fit in the middle of the venn diagram for their interests. It also depends on their lifestyle.

Dugan had been building robots since he was ten years old and Tian had many years as a chemical engineer in the food division of Unilever.

The acquisition of customers and farmers also confirmed that the site was one where farmers were willing to pay for a better option.

“Traditionally, the way fertilizers are used, only 30% of all fertilizers are taken up by crops, so most of them are wasted,” said Tian. “Farmers usually fertilize once a season, so they have to apply a lot of fertilizer, but crops also need fertilizer during the season. We knew there was a problem that many of our farmers wanted to solve.”

The pair founded Upside Robotics in 2024 and then hit the fields — literally.

“We bought a trailer, and we went from field to field,” Dugan said. We sat by the side of the garden every night, and we walked, sometimes day and night.

Dugan built the robot in two weeks to begin testing their idea. The device was a remote-controlled car that Dugan and Tian operated manually. They follow the robot around the fields to collect information and show how the fertilizers can work for the farmers.

“We did our hands-on work in the first year, and that allowed us to learn quickly, not just being part of the hardware, but learning by being with the farmers,” Tian said. Some of our farmers said that we probably spent more time in their fields than they had in their entire lives.

After the 2024 season proved the company’s concept, they spent a lot of time developing the fourth generation of their robot in the 2025 growing season. They went from 70 acres in 2024 to 1,200 acres in 2025.

Now, the company plans to serve more than 3,000 acres in the coming season of 2026 and retain 100% of customers from the start. Upside says it has so far helped its customers reduce fertilizer use by 70%, which equates to about $150 in savings per acre per season.

Upside recently raised a $7.5 million seed round led by Plural with participation from Garage Capital and its founders Clearpath Robotics.

The money will be used to continue to support research and development and to maintain the essentials – there are over 200 farms on their waiting list. The company also hopes to expand from Canada with the goal of breaking into the US corn belt.

“People always question whether farmers will accept new solutions, and of course they are, and that’s what we’ve learned ourselves, as long as you give them a clear (reimbursement) and a clear reason why the technology was built,” said Tian. “For us, we didn’t need to sell to farmers, but often our farmers asked us this question.”