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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

iUnu

iUNU Raises $7M Series A for Computer Vision Approach to Indoor Growing

IUNU, which builds computer vision and machine learning systems to add more precision to indoor farming, announced today that it has raised a $7 million Series A round of funding led by S2G Ventures and Ceres Partners.

IUNU (pronounced “yoo-noo”) makes Luna, a robotic system of cameras both fixed and mounted on rails that go on the ceilings of commercial greenhouses. Using these cameras, environmental sensors, computer vision and machine learning, iUNU can measure everything about plants being grown down to the growth rate of each individual plant. If Luna detects changes in the health of plants, it can alert growers so they can take action to improve product quality and yields.

The indoor agriculture space is certainly hot right now, and has seen downright frothy amounts of investment. BrightFarms raised a $100M Series E round in October, Plenty raised a $100M Series D round that same month, and Urban Oasis raised $1.2 million just last month. And just today, Gotham Greens raised $87 million for its high-tech greenhouses.

Beyond straight up fundraising, the indoor farming is also in the midst of a growth boom. AppHarvest is building out the world’s largest greenhouse in Kentucky, and YesHealth Group and Nordic Harvest are building “Europe’s largest” vertical farm.

It’s not hard to understand why there is so much going on in indoor ag right now. The population of our planet is expected to hit 11.2 billion by the end of the century, up from 7.7 billion in 2019. All of those people need to be fed, and more importantly, fed in a way that doesn’t exacerbate environmental problems. With its precision technology, and the ability to move food production closer to consumers, indoor farms hold the promise of creating a more equitable food system.

Unlike the other players mentioned above, iUNU is not a full-stack solution. It’s not in the business of growing its own greens. The Luna system can be used to help make existing greenhouses more productive and could presumably be built into these new indoor farms coming online.

MetoMotion Raises $1.5M Seed Round for Its Greenhouse Robotics Worker

Israel-based MetoMotion announced today it has raised a $1.5 million seed round for its multipurpose robotics system called GRoW (Greenhouse Robotics Worker) (via AgFunder).

There aren’t a lot of details on specifics of the funding round. According to AgFunder, the team behind GRoW has only said that “a leading Netherlands-based company in the greenhouse industry” led the round. This brings MetoMotion’s total funding to date to $2.7 million.

Even if GRoW’s investors are mysterious, its overall purpose in making indoor agriculture more efficient is obvious. According to the MetoMotion site, GRoW is a robotic worker that can perform labor-intensive tasks in the greenhouse, like harvesting. The fully automated vehicle uses a combination of 3D vision systems and machine vision algorithms to identify and locate produce that’s ready for picking (its first crop is greenhouse tomatoes). Custom-designed robotic arms then pick the produce, and a proprietary harvesting end-effector protects against damage to fruits during the harvesting process.

The vehicle is also capable of a number of other functions, like pruning, monitoring, and even pollinating crops. According to the MetoMotion website, GRoW can save up to 50 percent in harvest-related costs.

Expectations around the promise of indoor farming are ramping up right now as farmers, governments, and industries alike are looking at alternative methods to supplement traditional agriculture. At the same time, there’s a major shortage of skilled labor for greenhouses. Therefore it’s not surprising that MetoMotion has some friendly competition in the greenhouse robotics space. A company called iUnu makes Luna, a robot that uses cameras, sensors, and computer vision to scoot about the greenhouse and monitor crop welfare. Cambridge Consultants, meanwhile, has a robot called Hank that uses a sensory system embedded into pneumatic fingers to mimic human hands, which makes it ideal for harvesting delicate fruits and veggies.

Since details of MetoMotion’s seed round are scant, we’re not yet sure what the company will put the money towards, or when we can expect to see GRoW distributed. Israel-based Trendlines, MetoMotion’s parent company, says a fully functional version of GRoW has been successfully alpha tested in a greenhouse setting.

Podcast: Meet Luna the Robotic Monitoring System for Greenhouses

Produce is grown across somewhere between 250 and 300 million square feet of commercial greenhouse space in the U.S.. That’s a whole lot of crops that need to be monitored to make sure they are watered, properly lit and healthy.

Thankfully, iUnu (pronounced “yoo-noo”) is here to help. The company makes Luna, a robot that scurries around on rails mounted to the ceilings of greenhouses. Using a variety of cameras, sensors and computer vision, Luna helps greenhouse growers better understand and manage the welfare of their crops to improve overall yield.

For this week’s Automat podcast, I sat down with iUnu Co-Founder and CEO, Adam Greenberg to learn more about the culture around greenhouse growing, and how Luna works to make it better. Listen to our conversation here, or better yet, subscribe to The Automat, to get a weekly dose of food-related robots and AI.