Electric Plant has raised $11.2 million in a seed funding round to bring its Bombadil AI model and plant-monitoring sensors to market. Founded by Justin Mast and neuroscientist Lee von Kraus, the startup has spent three years collecting data to build a large language model capable of interpreting electrical signals in plants and relaying their real-time needs to growers. The funding round was led by Onto Ventures and Climactic, with participation from Ponderosa, Endeavor Catalyst, Ludlow, Michigan Rise, The Fund, Schox VC, and Dug Song.
Traditional agricultural tools like soil probes, handheld spectroscopes, and satellite imagery often lag behind the real-time needs of crops. To overcome this, Electric Plant developed sensors about the size of an iPhone folded lengthwise that attach to plants using stainless steel screws to detect microvolt changes in living tissue. The collected data is sent via a low-power wireless network to the cloud, where the Bombadil model interprets the signals for about 125 different species, including tomatoes, ferns, redwoods, and dahlias. Mast claims the system can boost yields while cutting water use by 20% or more at a fraction of the cost of traditional equipment.
This technology matters because it offers growers real-time insight into plant health and resource needs using affordable hardware, potentially transforming agricultural efficiency and conservation.