Electric Plant launches Bombadil AI model:

Electric Plant has launched Bombadil, its first AI foundation model, and announced $11.2 million in funding. The company, which has spent years decoding the electrical signals of plants, said the round was backed by Onto Ventures, Climactic, Ponderosa Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, Ludlow Ventures, Michigan Rise, the Michigan Outdoor Innovation Fund, Everywhere Ventures, Schox Patent Group VC and Dug Song, among others.

Bombadil was trained on more than 4 million hours of recordings across 100 species and a range of environments, which Electric Plant says makes it the most species-diverse foundation model ever built on biological signals. Rather than inferring plant health from soil conditions, weather or visual cues, the model reads a plant's condition directly from its own electrical activity. According to the company, this gives growers granular, real-time visibility into each plant, allowing a level of close, individualized care that has not previously been possible at scale.

© Justin Mast

"We've now recorded more than 7 million hours of signal from over 125 species, from redwoods to petunias," commented Electric Plant CEO Justin Mast. "That's 100x more data than the brainwave foundation model that inspired our approach, and it makes Bombadil the most species-diverse model of directly recorded electrical biosignals in existence."

"We're already lining up deployments with some of the largest growers and land managers in the world, from large-scale farms to forestry, horticulture, landscaping and conservation. Turns out, knowing what plants need and when helps solve some big problems," concluded Justin.

For more information:
Electric Plant
electricplant.co/