Bluewhite

Founders and idea: don't replace the tractor

Bluewhite was founded in 2017 in Tel Aviv by Ben Alfi, who served as CEO, Yair Shahar and Aviram Shmueli. The starting point was economic: agriculture is short of workers, but farmers are in no hurry to replace equipment. According to Alfi, running an older tractor costs about $100,000 a year, and even the most successful farms replace only about a tenth of their fleet each year. "Labor, labor, labor: it is the biggest need," he said in 2024. The conclusion was not to build a new autonomous tractor, but to make the tractor already standing on the farm autonomous.

Pathfinder and Compass

The company developed two products. Pathfinder is a kit that converts a regular vehicle into an autonomous one, combining computer vision and AI algorithms. Alfi described it as an "IKEA kit" that is sent to a local service center and installed in one day, and a converted tractor can still be driven by a person when needed. Compass is cloud software for fleet management: it coordinates several autonomous machines at once and shows the customer data on what is happening in the field. The company did not sell the system as a one-time product but as a service, usually on a five-year contract.

US orchards and fundraising

Most of its farming work was in the US, mainly in California and Washington State. In January 2024 its customers included small family farms alongside 20 of the largest US growers of permanent crops, such as orchards, and its robots had logged 50,000 hours of autonomous work across 150,000 acres. That month it raised $39 million in a Series C led by Insight Partners, at a reported valuation of $200 million to $300 million, compared with $130 million in the previous round in 2021. According to CTech, the company's total funding reached $89 million.

The acquisition by Elbit

In May 2026 FUSE, the autonomy unit of Elbit Systems, completed the purchase of 100% of Bluewhite's shares. The terms of the deal were not published, and Elbit did not file an official report on it. In Elbit's announcement, Bluewhite was described as a developer of autonomy for open terrain and defense uses, which can turn existing vehicles into a coordinated autonomous fleet. According to the company, its systems had logged more than 100,000 hours of autonomous operation in agricultural and defense settings. FUSE CEO Eyal Dahan said the acquisition complements the unit's drone and swarm capabilities on land. Alfi said the mission had always been "to bring practical autonomy to the field."

Dual-use technology

Bluewhite's story is a clear example of dual-use technology: the same kit designed to spray orchards and pick fruit is also suitable for driving military vehicles without a driver. By September 2026 the company's website already presented it as a provider of autonomy for defense missions, and did not mention agriculture on the home page. The shift also reflects demand: at the time of the acquisition, the FUSE CEO said modern battlefields require wide adoption of robotic capabilities. The case also shows how fast a company can change its public identity: from a service for farmers to part of the defense industry, in less than three years.