John Deere names five startups to 2026 collaborator program

Deere & Company has named five technology firms to its 2026 Startup Collaborator Program, expanding its effort to integrate advanced sensing, artificial intelligence, and automation into farming and construction equipment.

The program, launched in 2019, allows John Deere to work directly with early-stage companies to test technologies for potential integration into its machinery and digital platforms. The initiative reflects the company’s broader strategy to build more autonomous and data-driven production systems as farmers face rising costs, labor shortages, and pressure to improve efficiency.

This year’s participants span soil sensing, robotics, telematics, and crop analytics:

• AIRS ML, which develops edge-based AI systems for real-time equipment monitoring and predictive maintenance.
• IoTag, a provider of telematics tools that convert machine operating data into performance insights across mixed fleets.
• resonAg, an Australian firm adapting sensing technologies from mining and medical sectors to measure soil conditions for precision agriculture.
• TorqueAGI, which is developing AI foundation models designed to enable autonomous enterprise robots.
• Aerobotics, which uses drone and mobile imagery to help fruit growers estimate yields and manage orchards more precisely.

Participants in the program do not receive direct investment but gain access to Deere’s engineering resources and customer environments to evaluate commercial applications.

For Deere, the collaborations support its shift beyond equipment manufacturing toward integrated technology systems combining machinery, software, and analytics. For global agriculture, the areas targeted by the startups—soil intelligence, fleet optimization, robotics, and crop monitoring—are becoming central to improving productivity and managing inputs more precisely.