Best Crop Tech Companies in Austin, United States
The 40 best Crop Tech companies in Austin, United States in 2026, ranked by funding and momentum. Funding, investors, founders, valuation, tech stack and live signals. Top: Illumitex.
Our analysis of 50 Crop Tech companies
$5.7b in tracked funding; 93% of the stack-profiled cohort runs cloud-native; funding activity peaked in 2025.
Ranked: Best Crop Tech companies in Austin
| # | Company | Disclosed funding | Last round | Stage | Founder | Founded | Tech stack | Patents & IP focus | Recent signals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Illumitex LED grow lights for horticulture, industrial, and architecture | $78M | 104 mo ago | Deadpooled | Paul Winberg Co-Founder | 2005 | — | 90 patents Advanced LED horticultural lighting and optical systems for plant growth and pest monitoring. | — |
| 2 | Green & Grow Syndicator of product information via open catalog | $9M | 101 mo ago | Deadpooled | Alan Sobba ex-President & CEO | 2010 | — | — | — |
| 3 | Vital Herd Animal monitoring solution for livestock farmers | $1M | 146 mo ago | Seed | Brian Walsh Co-Founder & CEO | 2012 | — | — | — |
| 4 | Otrafy Provider of an AI platform for supplier management and regulatory automation | $1M | 46 mo ago | Seed | Lucas Cunha Co-Founder | 2018 | — | — | — |
| 5 | Fieldcraft B2B marketplace offering multi-category grocery products | $827K | 41 mo ago | Seed | — | 2017 | Node.jsAnimate.cssTailwind CSS+15 | — | — |
| 6 | Lettuce Develops a network of urban farms, engages in cultivation, package and delivery of fresh produce | $541K | 106 mo ago | Seed | Ved Prakash Co-Founder & CTO | 2016 | — | — | — |
| 7 | GrubTubs Provider of an online platform offering food waste recycling services | $180K | 96 mo ago | Seed | Robert Olivier Founder & CTO | 2014 | — | — | — |
| 8 | MechanicalMoon Developer of smart aeroponic growth chambers | $160K | 126 mo ago | Seed | Chris Beauvois Founder | 2005 | — | — | — |
| 9 | AquaSprouts Indoor aquaponics and hydroponics systems for home, office, and classroom | $150K | 96 mo ago | Seed | Michael McAlister CEO | 2013 | Cart FunctionalityShopifyBootstrap+23 | 10 patents Integrated indoor hydroponic and aquaponic cultivation systems for water-efficient plant growth | — |
| 10 | Local Plant Source Provider of open-source and proprietary digital assessment platforms | $150K | — | Series A | Andy Fletcher Founder & CEO | 2011 | — | — | — |
Top 11 Crop Tech companies in Austin
#1
Seed · Austin, Texas · founded 2017 · 4 employees$827.2Kraised▾
B2B marketplace offering multi-category grocery products. The product catalog includes fruits, vegetables, beverages, bakery products, dairy products, meat, seafood, oil, spices, flour, spreads, dry fruits, nuts, honey, grains, snacks, eggs, and more.
- Mar 2023Seed$827.2K
#2
Seed · Austin, Texas · founded 2018 · 9 employees$1.1Mraised▾
Provider of an AI platform for supplier management and regulatory automation. The platform automates supplier data collection and identifies supply chain risks. It streamlines compliance collaboration efforts through password-free hyperlinks. The system provides tools to maximize preventive supplier controls and ensure audit readiness.
- Oct 2022Seed$1M
- Jan 2021Seed$25K
- 2019Seed—
- May 2019Seed$40K
#3
Deadpooled · Austin, Texas · founded 2005 · 22 employees$77.8Mraised▾
LED grow lights for horticulture, industrial, and architecture. It also offers LED lights for vertical farms, greenhouses, and indoor gardening that are specially tuned to plants' photosynthetic needs by saving energy and increasing yields. They also make patented-LED white light fixtures for industry and architecture.
- Dec 2017Series C$7M
- Nov 2016Series C$4M
- May 2015Series C$16M
- Oct 2014Conventional Debt$4M
#4
Deadpooled · Austin, Texas · founded 2010 · 2 employees$9.2Mraised▾
Syndicator of product information via open catalog. It provides data-sheets and product information for e-commerce and channel partners. The catalog covers numerous product categories, including computers, electronics, and home appliances. The service facilitates the distribution of product content to various stakeholders.
- Mar 2018Series B$320K
- Aug 2014Series B$6M
- Feb 2014Seed$1.3M
- Mar 2012Seed$1.6M
#5
Seed · Austin, Texas · founded 2012$1.3Mraised▾
Vital Herd has developed a bio-acoustics e-pill sensor which is administered to the livestock animals. This e-pill stays in the rumen and captures various internal parameters in real time and communicates the same over the cloud where it is analyzed and the issues if any are reported to the farmers.
- Jun 2014Seed$500K
- Aug 2013Seed$797.4K
- Feb 2013Conventional Debt$50K
#6
Seed · Austin, Texas · founded 2016$541.2Kraised▾
Lettuce is an urban farming and delivery network. It uses unused land in urban households, buildings and churches to set up soil-less hydroponic cultivation growing systems which it operates and maintains. It cultivates leafy green vegetables, salads and herbs. It packages them and delivers to urban consumer in the vicinity of the network. The individual farming unit is paid for by the land owner who gets commission for the same. The produce is offered as assorted vegetable boxes for week full use, individual recipe boxes, sauce ingredients, etc. and is subscription based starting $30 per week. As of Sep, 2017, it has an active network in Austin, Texas.
- Oct 2017Seed$541.2K
#7
Seed · Austin, Texas · founded 2014 · 11 employees$180Kraised▾
Provider of an online platform offering food waste recycling services. Its process of recycling includes the conversion of waste food into animal feeds. Provides various waste recycling services to restaurants and commercials. Provides air-tight, sanitized tubs and pick-up services.
- Aug 2018Grant (prize money)$50K
- 2015Seed$180K
#8
Seed · Austin, Texas · founded 2013 · 3 employees$150Kraised▾
Indoor aquaponics and hydroponics systems for home, office, and classroom. They make aquaponics and hydroponics accessible, bringing aquaponic farming into homes, offices, and classrooms. By combining fishkeeping and hydroponic gardening, they reduce waste and maintenance. Aquaponics recycles fish waste to provide nutrients for growing plants, cleaning the water without filters or water changes. Their products are simple, beautiful, and maintenance-free, making indoor gardening and fishkeeping accessible to anyone. It eliminates the need for traditional fertilizers, making upkeep as simple as feeding your fish. It's the perfect way to grow fresh herbs and vegetables or beautiful ornamentals anywhere, all-year-round. They believe that aquaponics can be a cornerstone of future food systems, reducing waste and enabling people everywhere to produce clean, healthy food for themselves and their communities. They provide a platform for you to explore aquaponics and see how its synthesis of natural science and technology can change the world. They offer products, login, cart, and search functionality on their website.
- Aug 2018Seed$150K
- Jul 2018Grant (prize money)—
#9
Seed · Austin, Texas · founded 2005$160Kraised▾
MechanicalMoon is a developer of computer assisted (controlled) aeroponic growth chambers named GrowCubes for indoor cultivation of vegetables and plants. GrowCubes are autonomous and take care of self cleaning, lighting adjustments and plant growth tracking. GrowCubes are modular and can be expanded by adding more modules for large scale urban indoor farming.
- Feb 2016Seed$160K
#10
Series A · Austin, Texas · founded 2011$150Kraised▾
Provider of open-source and proprietary digital assessment platforms. It offers a suite of tools for authoring, delivering, and analyzing online assessments. The platform supports various assessment types and integrates with learning management systems. Additional services include technology-assisted human scoring and access to assessment data via API. Different editions cater to diverse needs, from open-source options to fully customized enterprise solutions. Support is provided throughout the assessment lifecycle.
- Seed$150K
- Series A—
#11
Series A · Austin, Texas · founded 2010 · 4 employees—raised▾
Ag Pro Exchange is a business intelligence and CRM platform that allows farmers to more effectively manage their business. Its flagship offering is AgXchange available on the web and mobile platform. It claims that using its open development platform, farmers are enabled to capture data from a variety of sources, normalizing and storing data securely. It also offers a marketplace that enables farmers to find, research and purchase farm input products and services.
- Feb 2017Series A—
Funding & investor landscape
Notable founders
Market landscape — 10 sub-themes by coverage
Share of Crop Tech coverage by sub-theme.
Regulatory-risk over time rising
Funding & growth over time
funding rising · growth rising
How research on Precision Agriculture is moving in the United States
A read on the academic research around Precision Agriculture — which themes are gaining ground, the institutions and researchers driving them, and how the tone is shifting. Based on 2,521 United States-affiliated papers.
- Purdue University West Lafayette142
- Agricultural Research Service104
- National Research Council85
- University of Nebraska–Lincoln68
- Texas A&M University62
- Field (mathematics)3→61
- Scalability4→52
- Convolutional neural network1→46
- Identification (biology)1→44
- Crop1→34
- Sustainability1→56
- Sustainable agriculture2→53
- Irrigation12→61
- Agricultural engineering32→80
- Field (mathematics)21→67
- Sustainability4→41
- Food security1→22
- Field (mathematics)8→22
- Productivity2→16
- Sustainable agriculture3→14
Where precision agriculture is researched across United States
Location clusters by institution affiliation — each city's volume, stance tone, and a quick read on its hot topic, what's advancing, the opening opportunity, and the main concern.
Who's filing precision agriculture patents in the United States
United States precision agriculture patent filing is accelerating — 212 filings from 42 assignees (2016–2025), led by Stout Industrial TECH, American Science & ENG, BLUE River TECH; annual filings 7→16.
- Stout Industrial TECH28
- American Science & ENG24
- BLUE River TECH21
- Cohen Harris LEE18
- Agjunction17
- Valmont Industries15
- Stout Industrial Technology11
- AGCO9
Common questions
Rohit lives in the feed. He covers what's moving right now — the funding rounds, launches and shifts breaking across the trade press — and ties them back to where the sector is heading.