Kubota takes Kilter's AX-1 spot-spraying robot into its European dealer network
Kubota and Kilter sign a European distribution deal for the AX-1 spot sprayer. 66 robots are in the field and Kilter cites up to 95% less herbicide.
Kubota and the Norwegian robotics company Kilter have signed a framework agreement covering the sale and distribution of the Kilter AX-1 autonomous spot-spraying robot across Europe. The agreement was signed on 22 July 2026 by Kristoffer Magnor, managing director of Kilter, and Shinichi Yamada, president of Kubota Holdings Europe, and the trade press reported it on 8 and 9 October 2026. It turns the pilot partnership the two companies announced at Agritechnica in November 2025 into a standing commercial route to market.
The AX-1 is already sold commercially in Germany and the Netherlands, the two markets where Kubota and Kilter have been working together. France and the United Kingdom are under review as the next additions, and neither company has given a timetable. Kubota's Smart Farming Solutions department and its European dealer network will carry sales and service, and Kilter spare parts are already stocked at Kubota's European Parts Centre in Thionville, France, where participating dealers order them through the same system they use for Kubota equipment.
The machine itself is a camera-guided sprayer for high-value crops such as vegetables and herbs. AI-based machine vision identifies individual weeds and Kilter's Single Drop Technology places a micro droplet of herbicide on each one, which Kubota describes as accuracy on a 6 by 6 millimetre grid across more than 15 crops. Kilter launched the first AX-1 in 2021 and says 66 robots are now in operation, that they have avoided more than one million litres of herbicide, and that herbicide use can fall by up to 95 per cent against conventional application depending on conditions.
Kubota is also an investor. It led Kilter's €6.5 million pre-Series B round, announced in early 2026, alongside existing shareholders including SBG Invest AS, Pymwymic and Nufarm. Andreas Kaczmarczyk, vice president marketing at Kubota's Tractor Business Unit Europe, framed the new agreement as a step-by-step expansion from one market to the next rather than a simultaneous European launch. Neither company has disclosed unit targets, pricing or commercial terms.
Why it matters for AgTech founders: the hard part of a field robotics business is not the robot, it is getting a spare part and a trained technician to a grower in the precise week the weeds are growing. Kilter has 66 machines in the field and has just bought itself a parts counter in Thionville and a service bench in every participating Kubota dealership, which is infrastructure a Series B would not have paid for. The price is that the manufacturer now sits between the company and the farmer, sets the pace of market entry and has held equity since the pre-Series B. For anyone choosing between building an own sales network and renting someone else's, the sequence is worth copying: prove the machine in two countries, let the strategic in through a priced round, then negotiate distribution once the pilot numbers are already on the table.
Kubota takes Kilter's AX-1 spot-spraying robot into its European dealer network
The Japanese manufacturer and the Norwegian robot maker have signed a framework agreement for European sales and distribution. Germany and the Netherlands are already live, France and the UK are under review.
Kubota and the Norwegian robotics company Kilter have signed a framework agreement covering the sale and distribution of the Kilter AX-1 autonomous spot-spraying robot across Europe. The agreement was signed on 22 July 2026 by Kristoffer Magnor, managing director of Kilter, and Shinichi Yamada, president of Kubota Holdings Europe, and the trade press reported it on 8 and 9 October 2026. It turns the pilot partnership the two companies announced at Agritechnica in November 2025 into a standing commercial route to market.
The AX-1 is already sold commercially in Germany and the Netherlands, the two markets where Kubota and Kilter have been working together. France and the United Kingdom are under review as the next additions, and neither company has given a timetable. Kubota's Smart Farming Solutions department and its European dealer network will carry sales and service, and Kilter spare parts are already stocked at Kubota's European Parts Centre in Thionville, France, where participating dealers order them through the same system they use for Kubota equipment.
The machine itself is a camera-guided sprayer for high-value crops such as vegetables and herbs. AI-based machine vision identifies individual weeds and Kilter's Single Drop Technology places a micro droplet of herbicide on each one, which Kubota describes as accuracy on a 6 by 6 millimetre grid across more than 15 crops. Kilter launched the first AX-1 in 2021 and says 66 robots are now in operation, that they have avoided more than one million litres of herbicide, and that herbicide use can fall by up to 95 per cent against conventional application depending on conditions.
Kubota is also an investor. It led Kilter's €6.5 million pre-Series B round, announced in early 2026, alongside existing shareholders including SBG Invest AS, Pymwymic and Nufarm. Andreas Kaczmarczyk, vice president marketing at Kubota's Tractor Business Unit Europe, framed the new agreement as a step-by-step expansion from one market to the next rather than a simultaneous European launch. Neither company has disclosed unit targets, pricing or commercial terms.
Why it matters for AgTech founders: the hard part of a field robotics business is not the robot, it is getting a spare part and a trained technician to a grower in the precise week the weeds are growing. Kilter has 66 machines in the field and has just bought itself a parts counter in Thionville and a service bench in every participating Kubota dealership, which is infrastructure a Series B would not have paid for. The price is that the manufacturer now sits between the company and the farmer, sets the pace of market entry and has held equity since the pre-Series B. For anyone choosing between building an own sales network and renting someone else's, the sequence is worth copying: prove the machine in two countries, let the strategic in through a priced round, then negotiate distribution once the pilot numbers are already on the table.
