Almost anyone who has tried to make a living off the land knows the dreary scourge of rock picking: the process of removing scattered stones from otherwise commercially promising land by hand in order to free it up for agriculture or construction. The experience is more common than you might think — even this city-slicking writer got his first calluses picking rocks as a kid.
Now, a Bellevue startup is putting robots to work on that most mind-numbing feature of agricultural life and has raised $6.1 million to help it on its way.
TerraClear is the brainchild of Smartsheet and Onyx Software founder Brent Frei. After stepping down from day-to-day operations at Smartsheet in 2017, Frei returned to his hometown — Grangeville, Idaho, home to 3,141 people per the 2010 census — and found himself hand-picking rocks on the prairie. Like any good techie, Frei’s mind turned to automation, and he assembled a team tasked with fixing the problem once and for all.
The market is huge and we’re laser-focused on building exactly what farmers need to make their lives easier.”
TerraClear’s solution incorporates drone-produced aerial surveys of fields in need of clearing; computer vision and neural network technology to localize and classify different types of stone; and robotics in devices that do the physical work of removing rocks. Not only will the solution save low-skilled and laborious labor, but it will prevent costly damage to machinery that comes in contact with wayward stones.
Madrona Venture Group led the round, and the group's managing director, Matt McIlwain, will take a seat on TerraClear’s board. Meanwhile, Rhodes Scholar and former Navy SEAL Trevor Thompson will start work as the company’s president.
“A primary key to successful companies is a world-class team,” Frei said in a statement. “Nearly doubling our cash gives us the freedom to continue to recruit the very best people as we press for faster growth.”
While the company’s technology is still in a relatively early stage, TerraClear is busying itself with testing and engaging with the farmers who will use the technology on their land. The company recently opened a lab and test facility in Grangeville to complement its Bellevue headquarters.
“Expanding our facilities into farm country, where we have ready access to tens of thousands of acres and dozens of innovative farmers for testing and development, is very important,” Frei said. “The market is huge, and we’re laser-focused on building exactly what farmers need to make their lives easier.”
