Electric Plant has raised an $11.2 million seed round to develop Bombadil, a large language model that interprets electrical signals inside plant stems.
Learn how custom hardware sensors, low-power wireless networks, and cloud AI models are being combined to monitor plant biology across 125 species.
The idea began when company co-founder Justin Mast read about a houseplant that was attached to a motorized base. He founded Electric Plant with Lee von Kraus, a neuroscientist who has worked with the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). For the past three years, the pair have been collecting data to create Bombadil.
How sensors work
The company's sensors, about the size of an iPhone folded lengthwise and costing tens of dollars, are attached to plants with stainless steel screws that penetrate the cambium, a living layer of plant tissue.
The sensors send the data to a base station via a low-power wireless network. Bombadil then processes it remotely, on computers that are not located next to the plants.
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Bombadil's funding and capabilities
Electric Plant recently raised $11,2 million in a seed funding round led by Onto Ventures and Climactic, with participation from Ponderosa, Endeavor Catalyst, Ludlow, Michigan Rise, The Fund, Schox VC, and Dug Song.
Bombadil can currently interpret electrical signals from about 125 different plant species, including ferns, redwoods, tomatoes and dahlias. Mast claims the system can increase yields while reducing water use by 20% or more.
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