Forward

2023 marked a year where we closely executed on delivering the core values of FarmBot to the most people: stability, agricultural capabilities, ease of use, and being available from inventory.

Early in the year we began a transition of our social media content and ad strategy from long-form to short-form video. This has breathed new life into our paid advertising, brought more yearly traffic to our website than ever before, and further increased our online following and brand awareness.

With the advent of generative AI, we integrated several AI-powered features into the web app including automatic Lua code generation from natural language prompts, allowing users of all technical skill levels to more easily unlock their FarmBot’s potential.

We were able to maintain inventory of all FarmBot models through most of the year, with only a short period between the final Genesis v1.6 inventory leaving the warehouse and the arrival of new Genesis v1.7 kits. With the v1.7 design, FarmBot Genesis and Genesis XL now come 90% pre-assembled in the box and feature a completely revamped track design, significantly reducing setup time and complexity. Other hardware changes were focused on reducing the cost of goods sold and the shipped weight of the product.

And finally, with the analysis of our 2023 year-end sales data, we decided to put the Express product line on hold for the foreseeable future. While we will continue to sell remaining inventory and provide support for all Express customers, our manufacturing and innovation efforts will be concentrated exclusively on the Genesis product line going forward.

With a more focused and compelling hardware offering than ever, a growing online presence, and the ongoing improvements to our software and documentation, I look forward to seeing what 2024 will bring for FarmBot!

– Rory Aronson, CEO of FarmBot Inc

Timeline

January 26, 2023 — Received a restock of FarmBot Genesis v1.6 kits, marking the end of pandemic related manufacturing and supply chain impacts.

February 17, 2023 — Started a FarmBot TikTok account and began transitioning our social media and advertising strategy towards short-form video content.

February 28, 2023 — FarmBot was featured in a tech review by post harvest technologies on YouTube.

March 2, 2023 — Deployed new features to the FarmBot web app and FarmBot OS including an improved connectivity popup, a refreshed configurator with additional info and error messages, and updated documentation .

March 30, 2023 — Released the curves feature, allowing FarmBot to keep track of a plant’s water needs, spread, and height based on its age.

April 11, 2023 — Released a suite of new Lua helpers as well as updated developer documentation for the FarmBot OS Lua API.

April 13, 2023 — FarmBot was featured in USA Today’s Department of Agriculture Special Edition.

June 8, 2023 — FarmBot attended the SAP Sapphire 2023 event in São Paulo, Brazil to showcase a custom software integration with SAP’s platform.

June 21, 2023 — Integrated GPT powered Lua code generation and other AI features into the FarmBot web app, making it faster than ever to create custom sequences and functionality for FarmBot.

July 20, 2023 — Deployed a new controls popup, motor load plot, logs popup, and other miscellaneous improvements to the FarmBot web app.

August 4, 2023 — FarmBot was featured in local California news for its adoption by hundreds of schools across the US for teaching robotics, agriculture, coding, and many other STEM subjects.

August 24, 2023 — Published a new video on the FarmBot YouTube channel outlining installation tips.

August 29, 2023 — Published the first new software video tutorial since 2019, covering web app basics.

August 29, 2023 — Published the second new software video tutorial, covering FarmBot configuration.

August 30, 2023 — Published the third new software video tutorial, covering FarmBot controls and sensors.

October 12, 2023 — Added a tranche of new content to the FarmBot Open Educational Resources hub, providing our education customers with additional free lesson plans, video content, and easier to access links to our other learning resources .

October 26, 2023 — Deployed a new version of the FarmBot web app with a refreshed crop details panel, faster click-to-plant functionality, an updated fullscreeen sequence editor, as well as added new documentation pages .

December 8, 2023 — Released v1.7 of the FarmBot Genesis documentation hub featuring updated assembly instructions, documentation for the new track extrusions, as well as detailed drawings for all of the factory assembled preassemblies.

December 13, 2023 — Published a new FarmBot Story: Paint with your Garden, showcasing the use of Stable Diffusion to generate unique artistic representations of the garden from photos taken by a FarmBot .

December 19, 2023 — Overhauled the app with more consistent button styles and placements to improve the look and usability.

YoY revenue by product

Our revenue grew 5% in 2023 compared with 2022, with gains buoyed by a roughly 14% increase in YoY revenue from the Genesis product line.

Meanwhile, the Express product line saw a roughly 16% decrease in YoY revenue and an even steeper decrease in overall profitability due to rising COGS and lowered selling prices. This sales data, combined with the fact that the Genesis v1.7 kits come 90% pre-assembled (matching one of the main value propositions of Express), has led us to put the Express product line on hold for the foreseeable future.

While we will continue to sell remaining Express inventory and provide ongoing support for all Express customers, moving forward we will focus our manufacturing and innovation efforts exclusively on the Genesis product line.

Shopify reports for this table: Sales by FarmBot Kit (reverse filter for part sales) and Finances (for shipping and taxes).

Shipments

We maintained inventory of all kits throughout most of the year, with the exception being Genesis standard sized kits which were out of stock for approximately 6 weeks during November and December. This resulted in a backlog of about 25 kits sold during 2023 scheduled to be shipped in January 2024.

To get the data for this table: Export all shipments for the year from Shipstation and import into a spreadsheet. Sort by SKU and sum the quantities of each kit sold.

Market breakdown

The following table breaks down our FarmBot sales into three main market segments based on end-use of the machine: Education, Personal, and B2B.

The Education segment includes K-12 schools, universities, and extracurricular educational programs such as 4H and robotics clubs. The Personal segment includes homeowners, families, and DIY enthusiasts who use FarmBot non-commercially. B2B includes family farms, research facilities, farm-to-fork restaurants, and other entities that are not in the business of education.

To get the data for this table: Export all orders for the year from Shopify and import into a spreadsheet. Ensure the Education, Personal, and B2B tags are applied to all order line items. Clean the data of any void or refunded orders. Calculate line item subtotals using line item quantity and price. Sort by tag and SKU. Extract the quantity and gross sales of each kit sold to each market segment.

Total sales by country

Shopify report for this table.

Total sales by US state

Shopify report for this table.