Dot Technology Corp. (Dot), makers of the Dot power platform, received a $5 million loan from Western Economic Diversification Canada’s (WEDC) Business Scale-up and Productivity program on Aug. 26, according to a report from Farms.com.

The loan, which the organization must pay back in 9 years, will help Dot hire the right personnel, said Jeff Bourassa, CFO of Dot. “Almost all of the money is dedicated to hiring people. We have over 50 hired projected over 3 years. We have machines working out there but now we need the ecosystem around them to service them, troubleshoot for farmers and perform software updates.”

“We are thinking about the future and we think autonomy is the future of farming,” Bourassa said. “We empower shortline manufacturers to be able to offer an autonomous solution and make it fit in the envelope of our power platform. Then we work together to make sure the controls and components work.”