US indoor/greenhouse robotic-farming company (San Carlos CA) built around the Grover mobile robot; defunct as a produce company (rebranded to Inevitable Tech ~2023; cessation 2024-06-30).

Where is Iron Ox based?

Iron Ox is based in San Carlos, California, USA.

What does Iron Ox make?

Iron Ox has 1 robot model on the DEPLOY registry: Grover (Iron Ox builds both physical robots and the AI that runs them).

Where does Iron Ox operate robots?

Iron Ox is a robot manufacturer and does not directly operate deployments on the DEPLOY registry. Its products are deployed by customer operators; see the company page for the verified deployment record.

Iron Ox has no incidents on record in the DEPLOY registry. This does not constitute a safety guarantee; it reflects the incidents DEPLOY has tracked and verified to date.

Iron Ox · DEPLOY

Key facts

Product

Grover autonomous greenhouse module-transport robot + robotic arms; sold produce to CA retail.

Wind-down

Defunct as produce co; rebranded Inevitable Tech ~2023; formal cessation 2024-06-30; greenhouse sold off.

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Data & sources

Press releases1
News coverage1
Web sources2

4 sources backing this record.View all →

Models (1)

View all models →

Retired

Grover

Iron Ox (founded 2015, San Carlos, California; founder Brandon Alexander, with greenhouses in Gilroy, California and Lockhart, Texas) built autonomous robotic indoor and greenhouse hydroponic farming around Grover, an autonomous mobile robot launched in November 2021 that moved 1,000-pound hydroponic plant modules through greenhouses, paired with a scanning booth and robotic arms for plant handling. The registry records it at commercial maturity to reflect a genuine but small-scale historical peak: it actually sold produce, including leafy greens, strawberries, and tomatoes, into California retail such as Whole Foods, Bianchini's, and Mollie Stone's, so it was past pure demonstration, and it raised roughly 98 to 103 million dollars including a $53 million Series C led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures in 2021. The lifecycle state is discontinued because Iron Ox as a robotic-produce company is defunct: about fifty staff, nearly half, were laid off in November 2022, the entity rebranded to Inevitable Tech around June 2023 and pivoted from operating farms to selling agtech propagation technology, and secondary trackers record a formal cessation of operations dated June 30, 2024. Its Lockhart greenhouse was sold off, ultimately to Sensei Farms in September 2025, and ironox.com no longer serves a functioning company site. The funding total varies by source, so the 98-to-103-million range is used rather than a single figure, the cessation date comes from aggregators rather than primary press, and ADM as an investor could not be confirmed and is not asserted.

agricultureView model →

Relationships

YY Combinator Continuity FundInvestor BBreakthrough Energy VenturesInvestor

Founders (2)

Brandon Alexandercofounderfounded 2015-01-01no longer at company
Jon Binneycofounderfounded 2015-01-01no longer at company

Former / Previously (2)

Brandon Alexander Co-founder & former CEOsecondary-verified
Jon Binney Co-founder & former CTOreported, not verified

Safety record

No incidents on record for Iron Ox.

Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.

Peer companies

DJI7 models
Naio Technologies4 models
WORX Landroid4 models
Carbon Robotics3 models
GreenField Robotics2 models
HG Robotics2 models

Financial state

Reporting basis: private_reported
Lifecycle stage: wound_down
Counterparty risk class: high
Going concern: flaggedDefunct; pivoted to Inevitable Tech ~Jun 2023; cessation 2024-06-30.

Each numeric field carries its own basis marker. Aggregators report a number; this surface preserves the source class so verification depth travels with the value.

Funding rounds (1)

Series A2019-10-01
$20M(reported)
Investors: Y Combinator Continuity Fund (lead), Breakthrough Energy Ventures

Sources (4)

Common questions

What is Iron Ox?: US indoor/greenhouse robotic-farming company (San Carlos CA) built around the Grover mobile robot; defunct as a produce company (rebranded to Inevitable Tech ~2023; cessation 2024-06-30).
Where is Iron Ox based?: Iron Ox is based in San Carlos, California, USA.
When was Iron Ox founded?: Iron Ox was founded in 2015.
What does Iron Ox make?: Iron Ox has 1 robot model on the DEPLOY registry: Grover (Iron Ox builds both physical robots and the AI that runs them).
Where does Iron Ox operate robots?: Iron Ox is a robot manufacturer and does not directly operate deployments on the DEPLOY registry. Its products are deployed by customer operators; see the company page for the verified deployment record.
Is Iron Ox safe?: Iron Ox has no incidents on record in the DEPLOY registry. This does not constitute a safety guarantee; it reflects the incidents DEPLOY has tracked and verified to date.

Methodology: Verified · 4 sources (1 primary) · last reviewed 2026-07-03

Verification posture

Verified

High confidence

Review state

Stable

Last reviewed 2026-07-03

Sources by quality tier

2: unclassified; Unclassified source
1: secondary-industry-publication; Industry publication
1: primary-company-ir; Company IR disclosure

The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.

Peer companies

DJI7 models
Naio Technologies4 models
WORX Landroid4 models
Carbon Robotics3 models
GreenField Robotics2 models
HG Robotics2 models

No press coverage on file for Iron Ox yet. Coverage appears here automatically as articles are ingested from our press sources.

Machine-readable surfaces

Markdown mirror: /companies/iron-ox.md
RSS feed: /companies/iron-ox/feed.xml
JSON-LD: embedded in this page’s head
REST API: /v1/companies/b783af14-72ff-4f92-9b2c-bfee021e0e93
Revision history: /companies/iron-ox/history
Data documentation: /data
Query this programmatically: Deploy MCP

Peer companies

DJI7 models
Naio Technologies4 models
WORX Landroid4 models
Carbon Robotics3 models
GreenField Robotics2 models
HG Robotics2 models

DEPLOY Intelligence Score

22.5/ 100

vs 6 months ago

6-month trend

Peer rankingTop 36% of Agriculture

vs funding peers-20.7 ptsbelow funding-adj. expected

Analysis

Clean safety record across 1 verified deployment. Limited public visibility and press coverage relative to peers.

Signal flags

New deploymentGoing concernFunding gap >24mo

Dimension breakdown

Safety Record

95.0MED

Deployment Scale

7.8MED

IP Activity

5.0LOW

Funding Health

0.0HIGH

Hiring Signal

0.0LOW

Market Presence

0.0LOW

DEPLOY Intelligence scores are computed from verified registry data: confirmed deployments, disclosed funding rounds, regulatory filings, active job listings, video viewership, and press coverage. Confidence ratings reflect data availability. Scores update nightly.

Last computed: Jul 3, 2026

Intelligence layer