As agtech steps up to develop and provide sustainable solutions for the future of agriculture, Norway-based Saga Robotics has successfully closed on $11.5 million in growth capital.This funding was committed by existing investors Nysn\xf8 Climate Investment, Aker, Rabo Ventures, Hatteland, Melesio Capital, and Sanden, along with new investors Songa Investments, and MP Pensjon.With the parallel goals of addressing the growing labor shortage and making agriculture more sustainable and energy efficient, Saga Robotics is a tech company revolutionizing food production by replacing traditional tractors and manual labor with AI-powered robots.The company has developed an autonomous robot they call Thorvald a self-propelled robot that uses algorithms to navigate challenging on-farm conditions that has shown a reduction in plant diseases, promotion of sustainable food production with lower CO2 emissions, and a 60-90 percent reduction in pesticides.First built in Norway in 2014, Thorvald is based on a modular design allowing for widely different robots to be built based on the same basic module using common tools. This year, nearly one in ten strawberries in the UK will be treated by Thorvald and this is just the beginning of our global journey.Saga explained that this newly gained capital will be used to position it for an expansion into American vineyards; to continue to rapidly expand and strengthen its leadership in British strawberry production; and to develop new tools and data services.In the UK the company has already secured contracts with major growers, significantly growing the treated acreage year-on-year. It is these farmers in particular, who are widely un-mechanized and employ 88 percent of the crop workers in the U.S., that are on the front lines of the ag labor shortage.However, due to the strenuous nature of the labor itself, tighter regulations, and rising wages, this workforce has declined by 40 percent over the past decade, driving growers to seek out technology-driven solutions such as automation and robotics.Scaling of Sagas business to meet demand will be driven by Thorvald 3 a new generation of robot designed for both scaled production and operation able to work across larger areas in a more efficient manner. We look forward to supporting Saga Robotics on their exciting journey in the US and with further global scaling.~ Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor in chief with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvestings AgInvesting Weekly News and Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Groups Unconventional Ag. Global AgInvesting and HighQuest Partners are not a fiduciary in any manner, and the reader assumes the sole responsibility of evaluating the merits and risks associated with the use of any information or other content on this site.