Close Ad

The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

indoor farming

Ocado Makes a Step Beyond Groceries With Two New Indoor Farming Ventures

Ocado has thus far made a name for itself in the world of online grocery delivery and fulfillment, but new moves see the company stepping out of the supermarket and into the farm — the indoor farm, to be exact.

One such move is Ocado’s announcement that it will partner with Dutch firm Priva and U.S.-based 80 Acres to create a new vertical farming company called Infinite Acres.

According to a press release, Infinite Acres will create a turn-key indoor farming solution meant to grow year-round produce close to densely populated urban areas. The idea is in keeping with many indoor and/or vertical farming initiatives out there now: get greens to the grocery store on the same day they’re harvested.

The company will design and install fully automated farms with custom LEDs, finely tuned climate controls, and other software tools that match clients’ specific needs around things like location and crop selection. Additionally, 80 Acres Farms will send its own growers to operate the farm, from managing the tech platform to harvesting the actual food.

80 Acres already offers an automated indoor farming platform to U.S. farmers, while Priva makes hardware and software tools aimed at better indoor climate control, water conservation, and energy savings.

Where UK-based Ocado comes in is with its tech know-how around things like predictive analytics, logistics, and automation. The company is known in the U.S. for its ongoing partnership with Kroger, with which it operates warehouses full of smart robots that can pack groceries and handle other food-related tasks.

In terms of involvement in vertical farming, Infinite Acres is just the start. Company CEO Tim Steiner noted in the press release that Ocado hopes to “co-locate vertical farms within or next to our Customer Fulfillment Centres and Ocado Zoom’s micro-fulfillment centres so that we can offer the very freshest and most sustainable produce that could be delivered to a customers’ kitchen within an hour of it being picked.”

No word yet on whether robots will be scurrying around those farms in future, though that wouldn’t be so surprising given the level of automation companies are trying to pack into indoor farms nowadays. Infinite Acres will join the likes of Liberty Produce and Australia’s VFS in trying to automate as many aspects of the indoor farm as possible.

Ocado also announced today it had purchased a majority stake in vertical farming company Jones Foods Co., and will use its tech to improve efficiency in the grow process and possibly even integrate the system with Ocado Zoom, for delivery. Jones Foods Co. is Europe’s largest operating vertical farm, with the capacity to grow 420 tons of leafy greens per year. Ocado’s investment in the company could mean Steiner’s aforementioned vision of co-locating vertical farms near Ocado fulfillment centers will become a reality in the near future.

Agrylist Raises $8M Series A for Data-Driven Indoor Farming, Rebrands as Artemis

Artemis, formerly known as the indoor-farming company Agrylist, announced today an $8 million Series A round. According to a press release via email, the round was co-led by Astanor Ventures and Talis Capital, with participation from New York State’s Empire State Development Fund and iSelect Fund. The latter two companies are existing investors. The new funding round brings Artemis’ total funding to $11.75 million.

As well as raising new funds, the company has retired the Agrylist moniker and rebranded as Artemis. A new website and new corporate branding are slated for June 2019, according to the press announcement.

Artemis, which was founded in 2015 and is based in Brooklyn, NY, helps indoor farmers better manage the lifecycle of their crops through a proprietary system it refers to as an “enterprise cultivation management platform.” In one interface, which can integrate with existing software tools, the system will help farmers create planting schedules, control the indoor climate, track crop health, detect food-safety issues, and manage labor costs. The system also comes packaged with basic project-management capabilities like to-do lists and daily reminder features.

Increasingly, indoor farmers are turning to these kinds of “one-stop-shop” products to help them make large-scale indoor farming economically feasible and in doing so ensure more consistent production and higher crop yields. Some systems, like those from Liberty Produce and Freight Farms, also bundle hardware like LEDs and the actual grow panels into their end-to-end systems.

Artemis, for now at least, seems more focused on the data aspect of large-scale indoor farming. Gathering useful data on crops and farming operations can help companies not only better monitor crop health, but also help them measure productivity and labor costs, and ensure they’re in line with certain compliance standards.

Even more important, more data could tell us where indoor farming could stand to be more efficient, if indeed it’s efficient at all right now. As Paul P.G. Gauthier explained to me last year, the indoor farming industry tends to claim things that aren’t necessarily backed up by data at the moment. We need more information that can tell us, for example, how much water something like hydroponics actually uses, and where the waste water from those types of operations go.

These are no doubt questions Artemis is tackling, too, as it continues to build out its product. According to the company, the new funding will go towards expanding the Artemis team in product, marketing, engineering, and sales areas, as well as towards scaling sales.

Seedo Ramps Up Manufacturing for Its Hydroponic Farm in a Box

Indoor farming company Seedo announced it will manufacture more than 1,800 of its indoor grow boxes in Q2 of 2019.

Seedo’s device is a self-contained, airtight box that looks like a mini-fridge and automates the process of growing herbs and vegetables hydroponically. The device pairs with a smartphone app that lets users choose a grow plan or create their own, control and modify the environment in the box, and receive notifications about plant health, harvest times, and any unexpected issues. You can also lock or unlock the fridge door with the app, a feature that seems handy for households with curious pets or small children.

The device will fit inside most homes, clocking in at 40 inches tall and 24.4 inches wide. It has space to grow up to five different plant types at one time. With the aid of the app, users can adjust environmental factors based on what’s being grown. For example, tomatoes require a lot of light and fairly dry conditions for ideal growing, so Seedo users can adjust the “weather” inside the box to get those conditions. Meanwhile, a patent-pending lighting system self-adjusts based on the growth stage of the plants.

Most interesting about Seedo is the types of plants the company says you can grow with the device. The website lists the usual herbs and lettuces most at-home vertical farms can grow, as well as some heartier options: strawberries, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, and zucchini. You can also grow flowers, edible or otherwise.

The Israel-based company has also filed a new patent that will cover the AI and data analytic algorithms of its agricultural database. According to the press release, these algorithms are built to increase yield, improve nutrient delivery to the plants, and detect issues in real time.

Right now, you can pre-order a Seedo for $2,400. That cost includes the box itself, various filters (water, air), nutrients to get started, and access to the app (iOS and Android). Actual seeds are not included.

That’s considerably more expensive than some other options available for purchase or pre-order: the Herbert farm by Ponix systems is selling for around $553 USD. SproutsIO, which is expected to ship in Q3 of 2019, is going for $799. And the Farmstand, courtesy of Zooey Deschanel’s new startup Lettuce Grow, ranges from $399 to $469 for the farm itself and $49 to $69 for a monthly subscription that includes seeds.

Seedo’s customer base is currently made up of at-home growers and some commercial partners. The company recently announced a partnership with Kibbutz Dan, with whom it will create a fully automated, commercial-scale cannabis farm in Israel. Previously, Seedo had established a medical cannabis farm in Moshav Brosh, Israel. Seedo raised a $4 million post-IPO equity round in April.

Seedo expects to start shipping machines in August 2019. It’s currently available for pre-order in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Israel.

Square Roots Partners With Gordon Foods to Expand Its Indoor Farmprint

Urban indoor farming company Square Roots announced today it has teamed up with Gordon Food Service, a food service provider and distributor in North America. According to a press release (sent via email), the partnership will give Square Roots the chance to expand its farming footprint significantly while making locally grown produce more widely available.

Gordon Foods will assist Square Roots with building farms on or near Gordon distribution centers. Food grown on these farms will be available to Gordon’s customers, which include corporate clients as well as individuals buying from the company’s e-commerce store. Gordon is, according to the press release, a $15 billion company, so its deep pockets can facilitate the expansion.

Square Roots was founded by food entrepreneur Kimball Musk along with engineer-turned-entrepreneur Tobias Peggs. Since its inception in 2016, the company has been steadily rising as a leader in the vertical farming space. It’s known both for its indoor farms, which it operates out of recycled shipping containers, as well as its Next Gen Farmer Training Program. The latter is an entrepreneurial-meets-agricultural program designed to teach young adults the nuances of farming (right now the average age of a farmer is about 58). It places heavy emphasis on the technological aspects of urban farming, so participants graduate with as much tech savvy as they do plant savvy.

One cool thing about the Square Roots-Gordon Foods partnership is that it means more of these Farmer Training Programs across the continent. The deal includes building new Square Roots “campuses” on or near Gordon distribution centers, and each of these campuses will need people to care for the farms. Square Roots told me its Brooklyn HQ has 10 farms total and accepts 6 to 10 next-gen farmers each year. For new farms, the number of farmers will vary based on the size of the campus, Square Roots said.

Gordon operates 175 different distribution centers in North America. For them, the partnership is also a way for an old food brand to put on a newer, more modern face. The company has been in operation since the late 1800s and currently serves restaurants, hospitals, schools, and other food-service facilities. But as we’ve seen recently, even big institutions are starting to look beyond historical staples (green Jello, anyone?) and provide healthier alternatives to patients, students, and other customers.

While not a complete parallel, the deal does remind me of Corelle’s recent move to merge with Instant Pot: a century-old company teaming up with a young startup, presumably in response to the way our perception of food, cooking, and eating is changing. More and more consumers are growing aware of the quality of their food, and eating local is a growing movement that’s starting to become more than just a trend for rich hipsters. Big Food knows it. Old institutions know it. Gordon Foods has actually gone and done something about it, and possibly set a standard for other major distributors along the way.

How to Have a Hydroponic Farm in a Closet-Sized Apartment

I’ve long wanted to grow my own produce, even if it’s just lettuce. But since I live in a third-floor walkup the size of a Macy’s fitting room (and that includes the fire escape), outdoor gardening is out of the question.

At one point vertical farming as a solution would have been an outlandish solution, but it’s a growing industry, and more than one company now offers setups that the average person can fit into their home and operate without any assistance from an agriculture expert. Armed with that encouragement, I’ve been shopping for an indoor farm that will a) fit into my tiny apartment and b) compensate for the fact that I’m such a bad gardener that I once killed a cactus.

Here’s what I found:

CityCrop
CityCrop‘s farm has automated much of the science behind plant care, so that a user just buys the device and downloads an app, drops seeds into the farm’s base, then lets the system do the rest. Via notifications to the app, the software will tell you how to adjust the temperature so it’s ideal for your crops and when to water, and will even give plant care tips based on snapshots of your plants.

The farm is also small, which means it easily fits into tiny living spaces. Predictably, leafy greens are the most common crops, though the UK-based company also says you can grow things like edible flowers and strawberries. If the point is access to fresh greens even when you’re a city dweller with no time to grow, this makes sense as a solution — though it doesn’t come cheap. CityCrop is shipping in Q1 of 2019, for £999 (about $1300 USD) excluding shipping and VAT fees. As with any product that has yet to ship, proceed with a grain of caution as there’s no guarantee as to when it’ll actually hit the market.

Ponix Systems
Ponix promises on its website that “you neither need a balcony nor water to grow your vertical farm at home.” The company’s hydroponic farm, named Herbert, is a wall-like slab with shelves mounted to it where the plants grow accompanied by overhead LEDs.

To use Herbert, you place seeds into the pods, which then fit into the shelves. Add water every one to two weeks, and fertilizer every three to four weeks. The system does the rest of the work in terms of helping you maintain healthy plants, adjust light settings, and perform other maintenance tasks. Herbert can grow up to 15 plants at a time.

Because it lives on a wall-mounted panel, Herbert definitely takes up the least amount of space of any farm on this list. Right now it’s selling for €490.00 (~$553 USD) not including shipping. From a cost-point and a space perspective, I’d say Herbert is probably most appropriate for a dressing-room-sized apartment.

SproutsIO
Smart Kitchen Summit alum SproutsIO has a smart microgarden lets you grow up about 36 servings of leafy greens in the span of one month, and on your coffee table. The actual “farm” is basically a smart device in a potted plant, and at a mere 12 inches wide, is a self-contained farm that would fit on your coffee table with no problems.

The microgarden uses a proprietary combination of wavelength-tuned LEDs, sensors (for light, temperature, etc.), and an onboard camera, and connects to your smartphone via the SproutsIO app. The base of the device, meanwhile, can includes and electronic mister, to circulate water, and can expand as plant roots get larger. And it’s dishwasher safe.

The product is expected to ship in Q3 of 2019, for $799. As of right now, SproutsIO is for U.S. orders only.

Ava Byte
Ava Byte also uses a combination of hardware, software, AI, sensors, and a smartphone app to bring intelligent gardening to your tabletop. One thing about this grow system that’s different from others is that Ava Technologies developed lights that adapt to different types of plants, rather than the standard “on/off” timer used with most systems. A time-lapse camera lets you monitor plant growth remotely, and Ava claims its plants can grow three times faster than those farmed with traditional methods.

Ava Technologies, who raised a $2.6 million seed round last year, is another SKS alumni, and you can see company Valerie Song pitch the product in this video to get a good idea of how it works. Byte is by far the cheapest on this list, at $299. Throw in an extra $99 for a year’s worth of seeds.

Opcom
Opcom’s farm is a little bit bigger but will still fit in larger houses. The five-foot GrowWall2 grows up to 80 plants at once, which means you could supply the family with fresh greens every day and still have enough to moonlight as a farmer’s market retailer if you wanted. Opcom also makes a smaller GrowFrame, which fits on a wall. Its smallest, most affordable offering is the GrowBox.

GrowBox is a tabletop, automated hydroponic system that manages its own lighting and water circulation. Each GrowBox is shipped with seeds, and the device itself is super portable, despite its 50-plant capacity. It’s $599, though Opcom sells a ton of different products, and there are even smaller, cheaper options. But if you’re looking to get familiar with vertical farming or just want better greens in your life, this is a good route to travel.

As of this writing, I’m leaning towards Ponix Systems’ Herbert as the best option for indoor farming in a tiny space, as it only requires a wall, not floor or table space. However, this is not an exhaustive list of at-home vertical farms, so if there are others that merit mention, drop ’em in the comments. And stay tuned for further adventures in urban farming.

One Year Later: We Check in with Verdical, Winner of the SKS2017 Startup Showcase

Last year indoor grow system Verdical beat our 14 other food innovation companies and took home the trophy at the 2017 Smart Kitchen Summit (SKS) Startup Showcase. CEO Andrew Deitz pitched onstage about how Verdical’s indoor platform for hydroponic gardening would allow restaurants, hotels, cafeterias, and more to grow greens and herbs in their own kitchen, making fresh produce more accessible year-round while reducing food travel and waste.

When we left them last year, Verdical had just won a $10,000 cash prize and was gearing up to “revolutionize kitchens across the nation.” This week I checked in with Deitz to see where the startup is, one year on.

A Verdical grow system inside Jardiniere.

Customers
Verdical now has four customers, all in the Bay Area: Michelin-starred restaurant Jardiniere, 25-store pizza chain Pizza My Heart, the Marin Country Day School, and Berkeley dining spot Saha. All in all, there are 17 Verdical units currently in the field (so to speak).

Though he wouldn’t give details, Deitz also said that Verdical would soon be expanding outside the Bay Area with national — and even global — customers.

Like most other indoor grow systems on the market, Verdical currently offers just herbs and microgreens. This certainly limits what they can provide, but they’re experimenting within the boundaries. For example, at Jardiniere Verdical isn’t just growing garden-variety (ha) basil. Instead, they developed seed pods for things like gem marigold, wasabi mustard, and blue Ethiopian mustard. “We’re providing unique, highly-differentiated stuff that they couldn’t get other places, but can grow right here,” said Deitz.

Starting at $200 per month, customers get the Verdical hardware unit, all the plants they can grow, and access to the Verdical App that controls the growing platform, manages inventory, and provides education about new ingredients. According to Deitz, the price is cost neutral to the current herb and microgreen spend of their customers. Since Verdical works with everyone from a school to a Michelin-starred restaurant, I would imagine their monthly spend on microgreens and herbs varies pretty wildly, but Deitz said it’s actually surprisingly consistent.

Funding
This year Tabard VC, a food and agtech venture capital firm, invested an undisclosed amount in Verdical. Several angel investors have also funded the startup, though Deitz wouldn’t disclose details.

Partners
Verdical has teamed up with TE Connectivity, using the tech company’s sensors to monitor humidity, moisture, external temperature, water level, and water quality in their grow units. The two connected at the SKS last year and have been building a partnership together ever since. Verdical started using TE sensors in their early prototypes six months ago. “We helped them figure out how to better partner with startups,” said Deitz. “And they’re helping us figure out how to connect from the field all the way into somebody’s stomach.”

Verdical CEO Andrew Dietz with the TE Connectivity team at SKS 2018.

Competition

Since last year’s Smart Kitchen Summit, quite a few companies have made strides to bring indoor grow systems to restaurants. Farmery also installs indoor hydroponic grow units in restaurants. Farmshelf recently put one of their hydroponic mini-farms in a New York Oath Pizza location. On a slightly larger scale, but Freight Farms installs and manages indoor farms in shipping containers for use in corporate cafeterias and more. And that’s not even taking into account companies working on residential or large-scale indoor farms.

While he wasn’t sure about the growing mechanics of other indoor farming systems, Deitz was confident that Verdical would distinguish itself from the pack with its agtech. “We’re innovative because we’re growing with a soil-based medium,” he explained. By harnessing the water purifying and nutrient delivery powers of soil, he claims they can grow produce more efficiently. He also told me that using soil is a safer bet than going with hydro or aquaponics: that way, even if there’s a power outage, the plants can still get what they need to survive.

Deitz, however, doesn’t think that on-site indoor farming is zero-sum game. “The market is so big, it’ll take us a while to bump into each other,” he said, referring to Verdical’s competitors.

What’s next?
According to Deitz, Verdical will soon be announcing new customers and expanded partnerships (we’ll keep you updated). But as they grow, the company will continue to focus on its original goal: connecting people to their food source. “That’s where you can see a shift in consciousness,” he said. Until then, if you’re in the Bay Area, drop in on one of Verdical’s restaurant customers and taste fresh-picked some exotic microgreens.

Robots Run Iron Ox’s Indoor Farming Facility

The agricultural worker shortage means that many farms are turning to automation to assist with tasks like hauling equipment, precision weeding and even driving tractors. But startup Iron Ox is looking to take this to the next level by creating farms completely run by robots.

As MIT Technology Review reports, Iron Ox debuted its autonomous farm facility in San Carlos, CA yesterday. It’s an 8,000 square foot hydroponic facility that can grow up to 26,000 heads of leafy greens per year.

What sets Iron Ox apart from other indoor grow facilities is the robots. Big robots (carefully) move 800 pound water and plant-filled trays around the building, while mechanical arms transfer plants as they grow into larger hydroponic bays. All of this automated action is coordinated by a centralized “Brain” that monitors growing conditions and coordinates the movements of the robots.

For now, Iron Ox isn’t totally human-free. People are still required to seed and process crops, but the company plans to automate those tasks as well.

Iron Ox’s mission is to bring farming closer to cities, thus reducing the need to transport long distances. It’s certainly not alone in this mission. Projects like Square Roots and Freight Farms aim to do that as well, while CropOne is looking to build the largest indoor vertical farm in the world.

The other thing all these companies have in common in their crop: leafy greens. City dwellers better love their roughage, as a lot of it will be produced in these up and coming grow facilities.

Iron Ox is bringing a level of industrial automation to indoor farming, developing robots that can work around the clock, constantly monitoring, tending and raising crops. Coverage of the company’s launch did not include pricing, but one has to imagine that those hulking robots don’t come cheap, at least in terms of upfront costs. The question now is whether Iron Ox can get its robot-run facilities to a price that makes sense.

Farmshelf Brings Indoor Mini-Farms to Sustainable Chain Oath Pizza

Earlier today Farmshelf CEO Andrew Shearer announced on Linkedin that the new Upper West Side location of Oath Pizza, set to open this Thursday, will feature one of their indoor growing units.

Farmshelf builds turnkey hydroponic mini-farms, about the size of a bookshelf, for use in restaurants and hotels. Their systems are equipped with sensors which can automatically manage the growing process, so all users have to do is plug in the device and harvest.

By growing produce 15 feet from the kitchen instead of, say, 1,500 miles, Farmshelf units can dramatically reduce food packaging, waste, and carbon footprint. It’s also is a pretty cool marketing gimmick for restaurants which put emphasis on local ingredients.

Oath Pizza is one such restaurant. The fast-casual pizza chain, which started in Nantucket, specializes in local and ethically sourced ingredients. So it’s a natural fit for them to install a grow unit which will let them take the leap from “farm to table” to “restaurant to table.”

According to their website, Farmshelf units can currently support over 50 leafy greens, herbs, and edible flowers. Judging from the Linkedin photo, the only thing the indoor farms will be growing at Oath Pizza is basil. However, their menu also features oregano and spinach, so maybe those will make an appearance at some point down the road.

This could be just the beginning of the Farmshelf-Oath Pizza partnership. Last month, the pizza chain partnered with Aramark to bring their ethical ‘za to new, larger venues, such as college campuses, sports arenas, and office buildings. Oath currently has locations in Boston, D.C., and New York, and this partnership opens them for some pretty massive expansion. It would be a smart idea to bring Farmshelf along with them; their mini-farms provide very visual publicity. Not to mention a great Instagram opportunity.

The Upper West Side outpost will join Farmshelf’s current location lineup, which includes several restaurants in Washington, D.C., as well as The Great Northern Food Hall in New York’s Grand Central Station. Maybe soon college students and baseball fans will be able to see their basil growing right next to their Crazy Caprese pizza — and then Instagram it.

Food-Insecure Schools Are the Next Major Frontier for Indoor Farming

Tech startups and pundits alike are considering the many places (anywhere, really) in which indoor agriculture can become a reality. But an organization in the Bronx, NYC provides the most obvious clue as to where this type of farming can make its biggest impact.

Teens for Food Justice (TFFJ) is a nonprofit dedicated to training youths on hydroponic farming techniques, health and nutrition education, and entrepreneurship skills. In real life, that translates to working with schools in NYC to build and maintain indoor hydroponic farms that provide fresh produce to school cafeterias on a daily basis.

By TFFJ’s estimates, their farms yield around 22,000 pounds of fresh produce annually at each location, including bok choy, herbs and lettuces, hot peppers, and cucumbers. At some locations, the yield is even greater. Thanks to a donation from Green Mountain Energy Sun Club, DeWitt Clinton high school produces over 25,000 pounds of produce per year. The 1,300 square-foot indoor farm lives in a former chemistry lab in the high school, and feeds not only the students but also the surrounding area — which happens to be one of the most food-insecure communities in NYC.

TFFJ grew out of Students for Service, a nonprofit created in 2009 to involve at-risk-area teens in community service projects. A focus on food justice and sustainability developed a few years later, in 2013, when the first TFFJ model raised over $90,000 to build its first hydroponic farm in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. A second farm launched in 2016, and TFFJ now operates in Manhattan, the Bronx, and Brooklyn at Title 1 schools. These schools typically serve low-income areas, many of which are also food-insecure zones.

Roughly 42 million Americans, including 13 million children, are considered food insecure. Lucy Melcher, director of advocacy and government relations for Share Our Strength, last year described food insecurity as “a family that has enough money to buy groceries three out of four weeks; it’s a mom skipping dinner; it’s having to choose between buying groceries and paying rent.”

It’s also a vicious cycle. As anyone who’s ever skipped a meal knows, hunger throws both brain and body out of whack and can severely impact things like the ability to concentrate and even make sound decisions. In a school setting, that usually means lower academic performance, higher dropout rates, and lower-paying jobs as an adult — all of which can perpetuate the food insecurity cycle for any given individual.

TFFJ’s mission has the potential to halt that chain of events early on: in the classroom. You might say the organization is trying to build a new cycle, one that focuses heavily on getting hands-on with the food-growing process, education oneself, then taking those lessons to others in the communities:

It’s obviously quite a bit more complicated than an infographic can show, but getting indoor agriculture into more schools is definitely becoming a legitimate movement. Consider “Growing Brooklyn’s Future,” a $2 million initiative to create hydroponic classrooms in a dozen schools across Brooklyn neighborhoods Brownsville, Bushwick and East New York. Or Princeton University’s Vertical Farming Project, which this past May announced a partnership with Hopewell Elementary school in Hopewell, NJ, to develop a vertical farm-to-cafeteria program.

Right now, however, most of these programs rely on donations and grants, and literal and figurative growth will depend on much more funding in future. This is where indoor agriculture companies could really step in. There are plenty of high-tech farming startups out there, all hoping to play a role in the $27 billion indoor agriculture market. But as I wrote last week, these companies have an opportunity to expand their reach from the farmer’s market and the upscale grocery store to areas in greater need of both fresh food and better nutritional education.

One other advantage of schools: if indoor agriculture is going to be the force many hope it becomes, the world will need more people who actually know how to grow the food using hydroponics and other indoor farming techniques. Bringing these programs into schools is effectively training an entire generation on skills that will soon be critical for us all.

Natufia Raises $1.2M Seed for its Indoor Garden System

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.

Motorleaf Uses AI to Predict Crop Yields for Indoor Farmers & Greenhouse Growers

Between unpredictable weather, pests, and degrading soil quality, farming is an extremely difficult way to make a living. Indoor farming, though less weather-dependent, carries its own set of burdens.

Montreal-based startup Motorleaf wants to lighten the lift for indoor farmers by improving crop yield predictions and optimizing growing conditions. The company hopes that their software, which CEO and co-founder Ally Monk likens to a “virtual agronomist,” will take the uncertainty out of farming.

To do this, Motorleaf first gathers data on the grow environment through machine vision, agricultural sensors, and historical information. It then applies algorithms and AI to help farmers determine the adjustments they need to make to the indoor grow environment to optimize their crop. Which means farmers can monitor CO2 levels, light spectrum, and other atmospheric conditions remotely through wireless devices or laptops.

Customers can opt to install Motorleaf’s own hardware (a suite of IoT-enabled sensors), though they can also just connect the Motorleaf’s software to the farm’s existing pre-installed hardware to measure and remotely adjust environmental inputs. Its interoperability makes Motorleaf an easy tool for larger greenhouse operations, ones who already have their own monitoring hardware in place, to install.  “At the end of the day, we are a software company,” said Monk.

Motorleaf isn’t the only company helping indoor farmers help manage the lifecycle of their crop. In fact, it’s not even the only company which sees itself as a “virtual agronomist.” What sets it apart, however, is its ability to predict crop yield. Monk claims that motorleaf is the first company to use AI and machine learning to increase the accuracy of yield estimations.

This is a lot more important than an average person (read: the author) might think. Commercial greenhouses pre-sell produce before their harvest based on estimations given by agronomists — though they’re not always accurate. It’s extremely difficult to guarantee the quantity or quality of their crop before it’s harvested, and miscalculations can lead to loss of profits for both the buyer and producer, and also generate huge amounts of food waste.

Motorleaf claims that their software can cut yield prediction error by more than half — at least for some crops. Monk explained that each plant needs its own specialized software for yield prediction, likening farming to a recipe. “Maybe they think there’s a right recipe to growing kale; they need this many nutrients, this much light,” he explained. “We very strongly disagree with that. We think that any farming protocol needs to be dynamic, because if something happens in a greenhouse — which happens all the time — why would you stay rigid? You have to adapt.”

So far, their AI has only been proven to work for estimating tomato yield. However, they’re also deploying algorithms for peppers and silently developing technology for five other crops.

Photo: Motorleaf.

I was surprised to learn that indoor farming environments could be so volatile. After all, that’s the whole point of bringing them indoors, right? Apparently, not so. Monk explained that variable factors like sunlight, outside air temperatures, and human error can all affect greenhouse conditions. Even the plants themselves can do unexpected things that can affect their climate change.

Motorleaf got $100,000 Canadian dollars from the FounderFuel accelerator in the summer of 2016, and later that month Motorleaf raised $850,000 (US) for their seed round of funding. The startup is currently working with clients in Canada, USA, South Africa, South America, Mexico, Holland, Poland, New Zealand and the UK, and aims to be in Spain, France and Germany by early 2019.

Monk concluded our call with what he called “a crazy thought,” one he had when he saw celebrity-branded color palettes. “Why can’t I have a Jamie Oliver taste palette? Why can’t I buy a radish that’s the exact kind he likes to cook with?“ he asked. Farmers could use Motorleaf’s software to manipulate crops into having a certain taste and look, one that would be specific to, and branded by, celebrity chefs. Consumers could purchase produce that had the same taste profile as those preferred by their favorite chefs, and even integrate them into those chef’s recipes.

In the age of celebrity-branded meal kits and baking mixes, this idea isn’t too far-fetched. We’ve even seen companies like Bowery use AI to tweak the flavor, taste, and color of fruits and vegetables.

Motorleaf hasn’t started developing any of this technology yet, but Monk used it chiefly as an example to show how AI can open up “a whole slew of possibilities” for farming. He hopes that one of its applications will be to take the unpredictability out of farming, and put the power back in the hands of the growers.

Scientists in Antarctica Grow Food Without Soil or Sunlight — Get Ready, Mars

Astronauts, you had better like salad.

AP News reported last week that a team of scientists at Germany’s Neumayer Station III in Antarctica had successfully grown their first crop of produce without any soil, sunlight, or pesticides. The goal of the project was to explore food growing methods for use on outer space missions.

In total the researchers harvested eight pounds of salad greens, including swiss chard, 18 cucumbers, and 70 radishes — enough for quite the veg-heavy feast. And this crop just the beginning. The German Aerospace Center said last Thursday that its scientists hope to harvest up to 11 pounds of produce per week by May.

The vegetables were grown inside a shipping container, which arrived in the Antarctic in January of 2018. The plants are grown through aeroponics, a method of cultivation that doesn’t require soil or sunlight. Instead, plants receive nutrients via a liquid (made of nutrient solution and filtered water piped into the greenhouse) sprayed onto their roots, and bask in LED lights in air that’s enriched with CO2. The growing system and greenhouse are part of the “Eden ISS” project, in association with the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

Aeroponic farming is beginning to enter the home and specialty food markets, thanks to startups like Grove and AeroFarms. Since they rely on aeroponic mists and LED lights instead of sunlight and soil, these growing systems can support produce throughout the entire year, and in variable weather conditions. Including, apparently, the -20 °C (-4 °F) chill of Antarctica.

The Eden greenhouse. Photo: DLR via Flickr

This successful first harvest is a boost for scientists researching ways to grow produce on interplanetary missions where astronauts would be confined to tight quarters for several years. NASA already grew lettuce on the International Space Station earlier this year, but there are only so many salads you can eat before monotony sets in. This update from Antarctica shows that astronauts could replicate this growing system in space and cultivate a wide variety of fruits and vegetables in their ships  — and possibly, someday, even on Mars or the Moon.

NASA estimates that four crew members would need 24,000 pounds of food to sustain themselves on a three-year journey to Mars. Which can get very heavy and take up a lot of space. NASA is already working on light, durable packaging for interplanetary missions, but with a viable aeroponic system, they might not have to pack quite so much. Astronauts could grow at least a portion of their food on their ship, which would lighten the load (since there’s no soil required) and also give them access to fresh produce. Because freeze-dried ice cream must get old after a while.

This isn’t the only technology that might give astronauts more culinary options in space. The Japanese company Open Meals is working towards teleporting food through digitization and connected 3D bioprinters. If they reach their goal, astronauts could theoretically be snacking on tuna nigiri (or whatever else tickled their fancy) while orbiting the red planet. At least for now, though, they’ll have to settle for salad. Lots and lots of salad.