Australia-founded and U.S.-based agricultural water monitoring company Ranchbot closed its Series B round, led by Lewis & Clark Partners, which will fuel the agtech company’s global reach and support future innovations.
Ranchbot provides hardware and software designed to allow ranchers to monitor and control water resources, Andrew Coppin, the company’s co-founder and executive chairman, told AgNavigator.
The company’s satellite-connected technology includes a monitor system that connects tanks, cameras, and various sensors; (Ranchbot Lite) to monitor water, diesel or liquid fertilizer levels; and a trough-monitoring sensor.
The company will use the Series B funding to expand its U.S. and Australian teams, improve existing technologies, and develop new capabilities, including rounding out its platform to include more of the rancher experience — whether that’s insights on livestock, soil health, or biodiversity. Builders VC, The Cultiv8 Livestock Technology Fund, Fulcrum Global Capital, Lever VC and Macdoch Ventures participated in the funding round.
Ranchbot’s Series B round comes as many ranchers are grappling with the impact of weather extremes, whether it’s droughts or floods, Coppin noted. Nearly half (48.54%) of the U.S. is experiencing some form of drought, with 9.51% experiencing extreme or exceptional drought, according to U.S. Drought Monitor data from Aug. 6.
“To my immediate north, in the Panhandle of Texas at the moment, there is a massive drought. People who have had one or two inches of rain in 12 months. To my immediate south in Kerr County, we’ve had floods — two of the biggest floods,” Coppin said.
He added, “This sort of weather volatility is just adding another layer of complexity to what was already a complex business. We get wetter wet and drier dry. Everyone knows what a flash flood is. We need to start learning what a flash drought is. We can go from having water and to being totally droughted out in a really short period of time.”
Raising capital ‘has always been difficult’
Ranchbot took nearly eight months to raise the $15 million it was looking for and finished closer to $16 million, Coppin noted. In searching for funding, Ranchbot sought firms that not only provided capital but could help the tech company further expand its technology and reach, he explained.
“Some people say, ‘Well, I’m just going to capital. I don’t care if it’s connected capital. For us, that wasn’t even a decision. It was we either find connected capital ─ people who can help with more than money, through their networks, through their influence, through their experience in agriculture ─ or we shouldn’t have them on the cap table,” Coppin elaborated.
Ranchbot closed its Series B round amid continued headwinds for agtech funding, with deal counts dropping to new lows in the first half of 2026, according to PitchBook data.
The agtech industry is still feeling the pains of the early 2020’s hype cycle and large bets that did not pay off, Coppin explained. Earlier this month, indoor farming company 80 Acres Farm announced it was winding down operations, after raising $400 million in funding.
“Over 10 years raising money in this space it has always been difficult. [It’s] not helped by the boom bust cycles of things like indoor farming, which was going to purportedly destroy farming but then just destroyed capital, and then alternative proteins, which were going to kill the beef industry, but just torched another trillion dollars,” he elaborated.
However, Ranchbot isn’t dwelling on recent market trends, instead focusing its efforts on developing products that can meaningfully address farmers’ needs.
“The people who have sold picks and shovels in the gold rushes have always done well. It’s just boring, and it’s hard, and it’s tedious, and maybe there doesn’t look like there’s a huge pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. We’re a humble firm. We’re obsessed about our customers, and we know we do the right thing by them, they’ll do the right thing by us,” Coppin said.
