Graze is pleased to introduce their CTO, Nick Degnan, leading the engineering team to success. Nick comes to Graze as a specialist in new product development and introduction. Nick currently sits on the board of Miso Robotics, a company building robotic kitchen assistants. Prior to becoming CTO of Graze, Nick served as Head of Product for an engineering consulting company developing autonomous vehicle and drone technologies and prior to that role, VP of Operations, leading a team developing human exoskeleton technologies.

“The Landscaping industry has been operating the same way for several decades.  I’m excited to be a part of Graze that can completely change an entire industry for the better." - Nick Degnan

Nick brings to Graze his roots in mechanical & aerospace engineering with strong product development experience.  He has vast experience with startups leading to acquisition with sales, manufacturing and engineering oversight.

We're hosting a special webinar to answer all of your questions! Join us at 11am PST on April 14th to ask your questions directly to CEO, John Vlay.  

Limited seating available, so reserve your spot now with the link below.

Register here!

Graze welcomes Sander Pruijs as an Advisor to the company. A Dutch National, Sander is a seasoned finance executive, lastly the Head of Global Rural & Retail Clients for Rabobank Group. In his capacity as Global Head, he was responsible for the rural banking (primary agriculture) businesses in the Americas, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as the retail banking business in Indonesia. He also lead the digital transformation of Rabobank’s rural business across the aforementioned geographies. Rabobank is a Dutch multinational bank, specializing in food and agriculture financing, with 2019 revenue of $11.9 billion.

As an advisor to Graze, Sander not only brings valuable experience but also a keen knowledge on nurturing and growing agri-focused businesses, having been a rural banking financier at Rabobank since 2008.  

Graze recently secured a commercial agreement with Sundale Country Club in Bakersfield, California. Sundale is a 18 hole golf course with 6,801 yards spread out over 167 acres. The golf course has agreed to purchase 10 units of Graze’s autonomous lawnmowers, representing a contract value of over $1 million over 6 years. In addition, Sundale will also market the partnership and help the company develop and design performance requirements for the equipment.

For context, at the end of 2019, there were over 38k public and private golf courses across the globe, with over 16k of these situated in the U.S. These golf courses each spent $845k on average on land maintenance in 2019, with the expenditure expected to jump to $987k by the end of 2020.

Labor availability continues to be the greatest hindrance to growth in the golf course industry and Graze is attempting to solve the issues around accessing labor with a sophisticated, fully-electric, and fully-autonomous robotic solution.

The number one importance for Graze is safety.  As such, Graze has further developed its computer vision to recognize humans so that the machine can cease activity, much like a landscaper would do if a pedestrian walked by. Using Artificial Intelligence, the cameras on Graze’s autonomous mower are capable of identifying a human in view or even just a body part that comes into view. This feature is one thing that sets us apart from semi-autonomous, residential lawn mowers on the market. 

An additional safety protocol that Graze is implementing is ultrasonic sensors that provide proximity detection within 5 feet of the mower. This feature adds an extra layer of protection for pedestrians, workers, ducks and anything else that may come close to the Graze mower. 

Graze is proud to show off their latest prototype, which is currently being used for testing our navigation and safety sensors in the field. Watch their new video to see their latest prototype in action!

We’re also excited to announce that our campaign on StartEngine has surpassed $800k in funding. We have previously raised $3.88M from more than 2,600 investors, which brings the company's $10 million offering to more than 45% funded. 

Graze recently welcomed Rob Anderson as its newest advisor. Rob is a Co-Founder and currently Head of Mechanical Engineering at Miso Robotics. Prior to Miso, Rob worked at Microsoft and SpaceX, where he supported the development of increased performance in rocket engine components. He earned his degree in Mechanical Engineering at CalTech, where he founded the Caltech Sustainable Vehicle Club in an effort to investigate the next generation of automotive technology.

In addition to welcoming Rob to the advisory team, Graze also hired Philip Wong as its Principal Engineer to focus on localization, perception, and motion planning for Graze’s autonomous lawn mower for the commercial landscaping industry. Prior to joining the company, Phillip spent six years as the K5 Lead Engineer of Knightscope, a company building autonomous security robots which share many navigation features with Graze's technnology. 

It’s no doubt that the Landscaping industry has their eyes on Graze. Just last week, Our CEO was interviewed by Green Industry Pros to get his take on the future of Landscaping.

Click here to listen to CEO, John Vlay, on the “Robots Rising” episode of Grass Roots podcast by Green Industry Pros.  

In the interview, Graze’s CEO, John Vlay, shares the latest development of Graze’s first fully autonomous or robotic mower, as well as some of his own insights on the future of robotic mowers in the green industry. 

Graze is led by John Vlay, former Chairman, CEO and President of Jensen Landscape for eleven of his 35 years with this award-winning landscape construction and maintenance during that period. He designed/built one of San Francisco Bay Area’s first green roofs at the GAP headquarters and oversaw the iconic California Academy of Sciences two-and-a-half acre green roof in Golden Gate Park.

Under John’s leadership, Jensen acquired a maintenance company in 2008 to extend its geographic reach to Sacramento and the North Bay before selling Jensen Landscape to private equity backed Monarch Landscape in 2016. There, John oversaw Safety for Monarch’s six rollup companies in five states and worked with the Monarch CEO on acquisition prospects. John left Jensen in 2018, after which he has engaged in a number of consulting roles. 

As a member of Vistage, a CEO advisory group, John has gained insights into many varied businesses and is currently involved with two other landscape related companies with unique patented products. John is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in Business and Economics.

Graze is excited to announce that our campaign on StartEngine has surpassed $500,000. Our previous campaign raised over $3.88M from more than 2,600 investors. 

Also, don't forget to register for the live investor webinar March 10th, where we will be diving into companies using robotics to impact the healthcare, food, and agriculture industries. Click here to reserve your seat.

Over the past year, Graze has secured commercial agreements to pre-order 215 mowers via LOI with three customers that represent different segments of the landscaping industry. 

These contracts represent $19.35 Million in potential revenue!

1. Large landscaping companies - these customers require high touch and a long sales cycle but getting one on board could mean hundreds of mowers purchased every 4-6 years. We have proven our product/market fit with this segment by getting Mainscape (#14 in the US) on board as a customer/R&D partner (200 Mowers!).  
2. Small to medium sized landscaping companies - these customers may only purchase 5-20 Graze mowers at a time but the sales cycle is much shorter. We have proven our product/market fit for this segment by onboarding Miranda's Landscape  (5 Mowers!) as a customer and R&D partner. The value is clear for these companies as their number one goal is growing market share by outbidding their competition. With Graze they are able to lower their price point and win more job sites without needing a larger workforce and squeezing their own margins. 
3. Golf courses - This segment will require a new spin on Graze: the blades! Golf courses require a completely different type of cutting deck, called reel blades, so we'll need to adapt our product to fit their needs. Once that is complete, with the help of our customer and R&D partner, Sundale Country Club (10 mowers!),  we will begin our sales efforts to more golf courses.  

Not only do these customers represent potential recurring revenue for Graze but they also establish product-market fit into these 3 market segments.

Join us today to help us recognize this revenue opportunity sooner!

In a recent Fortune Eye on A.I. newsletter, Graze is featured in the A.I. in the News section. The mention details that Graze is built for mid- to large-sized commercial lawns using “machine learning, coupled with computer vision and a robust system of sensors, [which] allows the new Graze commercial mower to map job sites, plan and execute mowing paths, and avoid obstacles and dangerous inclines while continuously collecting and apply data to further improve aesthetic quality and efficiency.”

As we build our product, it is important to note that the industry has their eye on Graze. From Lawn & Landscape and Landscape Management to Golf Course Industry, Graze has received a lot of attention from the press, helping us build customer and distributor relationships before we release our product. 

The ~$100B commercial landscaping industry -- made up of the companies that service complex municipal and corporate land -- is plagued with rising hourly wages and shrinking labor pools. To solve this growing threat, Graze is building an electric, self-driving lawn mower for commercial landscaping companies. 

One of the top 15 US companies, Mainscape, is working with Graze to develop and launch a mower that will be commercial grade and capable of self-navigating complex job sites. Mainscape has also pre-ordered $18,000,000 worth of Graze mowers (via non-binding LOI) with the following specifications:

• Commercial-Grade | The flagship mower needs to service large job sites to meet the needs of commercial landscaping companies. Most mower fleets for these companies include a mix of 48”, 60”, and even 72” wide cutting decks along with a few smaller push mowers for hard to reach areas. Graze's current prototype has a 60” cutting deck to meet these needs.

• Consistent & Precise | Graze is currently testing a combination of machine learning and computer vision algorithms to map job sites and execute consistent parallel mowing paths, and collect and apply data to further optimize for precision and efficiency. 

• Electric | Each mower will run on electricity to maximize efficiency and allow them to mow quietly, night or day.

• Safe | The Graze team is evaluating a robust sensor suite that will enable it to avoid obstacles (i.e., trees, power converters, people), and safely self-navigate in and around commercial job sites. 

With fuel costs reduced and labor costs removed from mowing services via the introduction of its electric, autonomous mower, Graze offers its customers an immediate and substantial boost in profits. In the case of Mainscape, operating profit on mowing is expected to jump from 6% to 43% thanks to the Graze mower.

As part of the current Series A offering, Graze has raised over $4 million of the maximum $10 million round! We’re thrilled with the progress we’ve made and equally excited about the work that remains ahead of us. Utilizing the funds already raised, we've been able to make great strides in both our business and product development, including….

• Locking in 3 commercial contracts executed by Mainscape, Sundale Country Club and Miranda’s Landscape for a total of 215 mowers worth a combined value of $19.35 million in potential revenue!

• Unlocking the $14.16 Billion golf course landscaping market through our partnership with Sundale Country Club.

• Releasing a new fully-functional prototype with a 60” wide removable cutting deck, several safety and navigation sensors, and wheels that won’t go flat.

The future is bright at Graze, and we’re hopeful you’ll join us for the ride!