# Electric Plant Raises $11.2 Million for AI That Reads Plant Signals

By John Kim

Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/business/36233
Published: 2026-10-21T02:06:41.000Z
Updated: 2026-10-21T02:06:41.000Z
Section: Business

> Its Bombadil model is designed to interpret electrical activity in about 125 plant species and help growers adjust care.

Electric Plant has raised $11.2 million in seed funding to bring plant sensors and an AI model to market, aiming to give growers information they can use to adjust watering and fertilizer.

Onto Ventures and Climactic led the round. Ponderosa, Endeavor Catalyst, Ludlow, Michigan Rise, The Fund, Schox VC and Dug Song also participated. The funding is intended to support the commercial rollout of the sensors and Bombadil, the company’s model for interpreting plants’ electrical activity.

Electric Plant spent three years collecting data to develop Bombadil. The model is designed to interpret signals from about 125 species, including ferns, redwoods, tomatoes and dahlias. The range covers plants grown for food as well as trees and ornamental species.

The system measures small electrical changes within living plant tissue. Stainless steel screws hold each sensor in place and reach the cambium, a layer beneath the bark. That contact allows the sensor to detect changes measured in microvolts.

The readings travel over a low-power wireless network to a base station. Bombadil then processes the data in the cloud and returns results to customers. Growers can use those results when deciding whether to change watering or fertilizer schedules.

Electric Plant used information from existing monitoring tools to train the model. Those tools include soil probes, handheld spectroscopes and satellite imagery, which provide growers with other ways to assess plant conditions. Bombadil is intended to add readings taken from inside the plant.

Electric Plant co-founder and CEO Justin Mast said a couple of sensors per acre can provide accurate results. He also said the system could increase yields while reducing water use by 20% or more. Those performance figures are his projections for the technology, rather than results specified for a particular crop or customer.

“We’re listening more than we’re speaking, but listening’s the first step,” Mast said. The company plans to bring Bombadil and its sensors to market following the seed round.