Walt Duflock, SVP of Innovation at Western Growers, Devon Wright, Co-Founder, Lumo, and Neill Callis, GM, Turlock Fruit Company
SAN DIEGO (Nov. 11, 2025) – Lumo was selected as the Audience Choice Award winner during the AgSharks® Pitch Competition at the 2025 Western Growers Annual Meeting.
The finalists were:
- DriftSense gives growers field-scale, hourly-resolved 10-day spray plans so they can use less chemistry, avoid drift and protect yields.
- Lumo helps growers irrigate to plan with block-level precision.
- Mapana analyzes plant systems for fertilizer and mineral intake and provides input recommendations and tracks soil health.
- TRIC Robotics helps farmers control pests and disease with ultraviolet light as a replacement for chemical pesticides.
“We changed up AgSharks® at this year’s Annual Meeting in response to industry need – there are more good ideas than ever and startups need to get their technologies field tested by the produce industry,” said Walt Duflock, SVP of Innovation at Western Growers. “On behalf of all of us looking for solutions to the labor crisis in agriculture, I want to thank our judges for putting our finalists through the wringer.”
The competition was hosted by WG Board Treasurer Neill Callis, General Manager, Turlock Fruit Company; the investors were Danny Bernstein, CEO and Managing Partner of Reservoir VC; Robert Grey, Director, Food & Beverage, Plug and Play; and Rob Trice, Founding Partner, Better Food Ventures; the panel’s grower representative was WG Board Member Kristen Smith Eshaya, President, JV Smith Cos.
The four startups pitched their inventions in front of an audience of more than 300 fresh produce farmers and industry leaders during the 99th WG Annual Meeting, held in San Diego on Nov. 9-12, 2025.
AgSharks® was first held in 2017; past winners to receive funding have included Hazel Technologies, Burro, Nutjobs and Applied Carbon.
