Dogtooth Technologies raises £14m from 24 Haymarket and EMV Capital
This article covers Dogtooth Technologies, an AI startup that has raised £14m in a growth funding round from 24 Haymarket, EMV Capital, ACF Investors, Innovate UK and Kineo Finance. The package will support wider commercial deployments and further development of its robotics platform to make autonomous harvesting systems commercially available for horticultural producers, addressing labour shortages in the sector.
Dogtooth Technologies, an AI startup, has raised £14m in a growth funding round from 24 Haymarket, EMV Capital, ACF Investors, Innovate UK and Kineo Finance. The package mixes equity, grants and a venture leasing facility and will fund wider commercial deployments, further development of the company’s robotics platform and the push to make autonomous harvesting systems commercially available for horticultural producers.
Why it matters
The investment arrives as growers worldwide face persistent labour shortages and rising seasonal costs that make manual harvesting increasingly fragile and expensive. Robotic harvesting targets that gap by automating repetitive, delicate tasks and reducing dependence on seasonal labour, which could improve operational resilience across food supply chains.
Dogtooth’s raise is also a signal for embodied AI — the application of AI to machines that perceive and act in the physical world — a field that investors and industry observers see as one of AI’s next frontiers. Commercial deployments, including recent deliveries to Dyson Farming, suggest the technology is moving beyond lab demonstrations into real farm operations.
Inside the product
Dogtooth’s robots combine computer vision, machine learning and precision robotic manipulation to navigate complex growing environments, identify ripe fruit and harvest delicate crops at commercial pace. The firm says its systems are designed to cope with real-world variability in orchards and glasshouses, which is the primary technical barrier to large-scale adoption.
The company has positioned its stack to be both hardware- and software-driven: sensors and manipulators for physical handling, and models for perception and ripeness detection. Commercial readiness is illustrated by customer deployments; Dyson Farming has received recent deliveries, suggesting the technology has passed key operational thresholds for at least some producers.
Who are the investors?
The round brings together private backers and public funding: 24 Haymarket, EMV Capital and ACF Investors are the named private investors, while Innovate UK contributed grant funding and Kineo Finance provided a venture leasing facility. The funding mix is intended to support capital-intensive hardware deployments as well as ongoing R&D.
Paul Tselentis, Managing Director at 24 Haymarket, said:
Dogtooth has established itself as one of the world's leading agricultural robotics companies through a combination of deep technical expertise, perseverance, and commercial focus. The team has achieved what many believed would be impossible: reliably harvesting delicate crops in real-world commercial environments. We are delighted to support the company's next phase of growth.
Tim Mills, Managing Partner at ACF Investors, said:
Having backed Dogtooth from its early days, we have seen the exceptional progress the company has made in developing and deploying technology that addresses one of agriculture's most significant challenges and demonstrates the substantial commercial potential of robotics in the sector. We are delighted to continue supporting the team as they accelerate global commercial growth.
Ilian Iliev, Managing Director at EMV Capital, said:
Precision robotics and AI applied to agriculture at commercial scale is exactly the kind of outsized, real-world impact EMV Capital seeks to invest in. Dogtooth exemplifies our investment thesis: finding world-class deeptech teams early, adding value through our platform, and scaling our commitment as the business proves itself. Having backed the company since pre-seed through Martlet Capital, we are continuing that support through our EIS Fund and private practice, reflecting our view that the strongest investor relationships deepen as a business matures.
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Founder perspective
Duncan Robertson, CEO of Dogtooth, framed the raise as a turning point for both the company and the sector:
This investment represents a significant milestone for Dogtooth and for the broader adoption of embodied AI in agriculture. For many years, robotic harvesting has been viewed as a distant aspiration. Today, growers are deploying our robots on commercial farms because labour shortages are a reality that cannot be ignored. The convergence of AI, robotics and practical customer demand is creating a unique opportunity to transform the production of fruit and vegetable produce.
The bigger picture
Dogtooth’s funding highlights two intersecting trends: the commercialisation of embodied AI and the practical pressure on agriculture to automate. Agricultural robotics has long been discussed as a solution to labour constraints, but until recently deployments were limited to pilots. A combination of improved perception models, more reliable manipulators and financing structures that acknowledge hardware capital needs is helping move the sector from experimentation to rollout.
Public support via Innovate UK grant funding is notable; it underlines a policy environment that still favours R&D-led automation projects in the UK. The involvement of specialist investors such as EMV Capital and ACF Investors signals continued appetite from UK deeptech investors for hardware-focused AI companies.
The deal therefore matters not only for Dogtooth but for the UK and European ecosystem: it is an example of how mixed public and private capital can de-risk capital-intensive robotics deployments and help promising embodied AI projects scale into commercial operations that address real labour and food-security challenges.
They've invested in Dogtooth Technologies
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| Investors | Investment Focus | Startup Investments | Round Size | Connect |
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