Natufia, an Estonian startup that makes smart indoor food growing systems, announced last week that it closed a $1.2 million seed round led by Butterfly Ventures, Techstars and the Dubai-based family office of Ginco Investments.
Judging from the press announcement and the company’s website, Natufia builds self-contained, vertical indoor systems that use seed pods for growing leafy greens and herbs. The hardware contains sensors that monitor factors like temperature and humidity so you can create optimal growing conditions. It even offers three musical playlists to help keep your plants calm and relaxed (we guess?).
There’s no pricing information on the Natufia, and the website just says to find a retailer near you (though doesn’t say where) and that you can pre-order one online for an unspecified amount of money.
Natufia is among a slew of companies creating smart, seed pod-based indoor grow systems that allow people to harvest their own food. The company says its system can be used either by consumers or in a professional setting. SproutsIO and Ava Byte are countertop devices for the home, while Verdical, which is aimed at commercial spaces, is more similar in size to the Natufia.
These systems haven’t really come to market yet, so we don’t know yet what consumer adoption will be like. SproutsIO was supposed to ship this summer, but its website still only lets you sign up for updates on availability. In an update, Ava said it will ship to pre-orders this October, and since winning the Startup Showcase at last year’s Smart Kitchen Summit, Verdical has kept pretty quiet.
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