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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

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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.

Smart Garden Startup Click & Grow Raises $11 Million To Fuel Expansion

Estonian smart-garden startup Click & Grow announced this week it has raised $11 million to help accelerate growth for its hyperlocal grow systems into new markets.

Investors in this round include two strategic corporate investors in Swedish holding company Ingka Group (which owns and operates the majority of IKEA stores) and French conglomerate Groupe SEB, as well as Y Combinator and Shanghai-based Yunqi VC. The round brings the total invested in the nearly 10 year old company to $17.9 million.

Investor interest in one of hottest indoor-gardening startups is not surprising given the strong growth in the home-grow space as of late. Demand for smart-grow systems has surged as consumers embrace the healthy aspects of indoor farming and — let’s be honest — start their own mini ganja farms as cannabis becomes legal in parts of the US and other countries like Canada.

While Click & Grow was one of the first of a wave of startups bringing technology to indoor gardening for the home, there is no shortage of competition in the space. New entrants like AVA, Verdical and SproutsIO are working to to bring their products to market, while Natufia, another Estonian smart garden startup, just raised $1.2 million in funding. Even long-time market leader AeroGrow (over 1.4 million units shipped as of 2016) has also seen a resurgence as majority owner MiracleGrow freshens up the product lineup.

IKEA’s involvement is intriguing for a couple reasons. For one, there’s no doubt the home furnishings giant has increasingly embraced smart home technology in recent years and the Click & Grow investment will strengthen extend this tech push into the garden. The deal is also interesting because IKEA had already launched a home grow system a couple years ago, which they are apparently still selling.

Either way, the Swedish company sees lots of potential in its new partnership:

“We see this as another step forward in our journey to serve IKEA customers and our co-worker’s healthier and more nutritious food, and it opens up new opportunities for IKEA Retail markets to become more self-sufficient by growing fresh local produce,” explained Krister Mattsson, Head of Investments, Ingka Group.

The Estonian startup, which has sold 450 thousand total systems and 2.1 million plant pods since launch, said it plans to use the funding to expand into new markets.

Farmery Wants Farm-to-Table to be Just a Few Steps

Farmery, a new modular, indoor crop growing startup, wants to redefine farm-to-table restaurants into something more akin to the-farm-is-literally-next-to-your-table restaurants. The company just launched its product of the same name last week, and promises to let restaurants easily farm their own food from inside their establishments.

The Farmery product is an expandable, self-contained, indoor hydroponic system capable of growing leafy greens and herbs. The smallest available size is five feet by six feet, and eight feet tall, which can be expanded with additional five foot by five foot modules. Each unit is enclosed and pressurized to keep bugs — and restaurant patrons’ sneezes — out of the grow area.

An accompanying app delivers updates on the status of the farms, including nutrients levels and any watering requirements. The app can also provide notifications to restaurant employees telling them which crops need to be harvested right as they start their shift.

A base-model farm costs $13,950, a price that includes shipping and installation, with additional units costing $3,950 each. The base unit takes advantage of full spectrum LED lighting, and only requires a regular 15 amp socket for power. According to Farmery’s site, each base farm or farm extension section can produce 528 heads of lettuce a month. That’s 85 to 138 pounds of greens per month or 33 to 90 pounds of herbs per month, depending on what you’re growing.

Restaurants can either buy their own seeds, nutrients and other inputs, or they can choose to order Farmery’s pre-seeded plugs, nutrients and cleaning solutions for a 59-cent-per-plant space monthly subscription.

Farmery is the product of Benjamin Greene, who grew his own crops at the restaurant he ran out of an Airstream trailer for two years. “The systems are great opportunities for restaurants to grow their own food on-site,” said Greene, “Harvest at 2:00, serve at 5:00.”

Greene is one among many entrepreneurs using technology to redefine what “farming” means. Companies like Growtainers and Square Roots use shipping containers to grow crops year round in urban environments, while startups like Bablyon and SproutsIO are bringing farms inside the home. But Farmery is most like Verdical, which won our 2017 Smart Kitchen Summit Startup Showcase. Both companies can convert dead floorspace in restaurants into productive areas that contribute to a restaurant’s bottom line.

Based in North Carolina, Farmery is just Greene plus six other advisors. The company has raised $300,000 in angel funding, and already has a customer in Costa Rica.

With the technology to produce crops indoors only getting better and easier, look for more restaurants to adopt indoor farming systems like Farmery’s. It will provide fresher ingredients that they have more control over and utilize more of the restaurant space. And who knows, maybe the new hot spot to be seated will now be next to the food you’re about to eat.

Video: CEO Jennifer Farah Shows Off SproutsIO Grow System

Tabletop farming is a growing trend that we’re following here at The Spoon. Some of these self-contained food systems that have been germinating, as it were, for years, will soon start bearing fruit. Literally.

Take SproutsIO. This Smart Kitchen Summit startup showcase alumni Kickstartered project is a soil-less, high-tech growing gizmo and accompanying app that helps you harvest your own leafy greens, root vegetables, and even tomatoes inside your home. Now, a year and a half after showing the product off at the Smart Kitchen Summit, SproutsIO is prepping to ship this summer.

We caught up with CEO, Jennifer Farah, at the International Housewares Show for a quick video demo of her product (we were on a busy tradeshow floor, so pardon the audio).

At a $799 price point, SproutsIO won’t come cheap. But if it works as promised, it’s versatility in growing different veggies could prove invaluable for any green thumb trapped in a tiny apartment.

Seedsheet Takes to QVC to Sell Simple Home-Gardening Kits

As momentum grows among innovators in the home/indoor gardening space, the focus has been on all-in-one home-grow kits. Such companies as NutriTower, Sprouts IO and Aerogarden are taking an approach in which their product’s value proposition is based on simplicity. The common formula of these visionaries includes hydroponic, tech-infused pot, built-in LED lights, seeds, and water. The goal is a home gardening solution without getting and dirt under your fingernails.

Vermont-based Seedsheet seems to believe that gardening, without touching the soil, takes the soul out of the experience. The company’s kit includes a weed-blocking fabric with pockets of non-GMO seeds (from High Mowing Seed Company) embedded in a growing medium, a cloth bag which acts as the planter, and stakes to hold the sheet in place. The process is simple enough to entice even the laziest gardeners, yet just tactile enough to appeal to traditionalists.

Featured on the April 7 episode of Shark Tank, Seedsheet grew out of a successful Kickstarter campaign which led to the product being available at Home Depot. The concept is the brainchild of Vermont’s Cam MacKugler, an architect with a passion for sustainable design. According to a company press release, the idea took root when he was housesitting for a co-worker and was allowed to tinker in the garden.

“I was spending my days in AutoCAD designing buildings, and one evening while harvesting dinner I noticed the spacing of the garden, the relationships between plants, and I saw a blueprint. I wondered why we weren’t approaching agriculture with the same precision as architecture,” MacKluger says.

“Food transparency and availability are critical issues in the country, and the world, right now. People want to know the story behind their food, whether pesticides and herbicides were used on the plants, and want to feel confident that they’re feeding themselves and their family safe and healthy food. Our goal is to make it ridiculously easy to grow your own, so you know exactly where your food comes from.”

With the able assistance of $500,000 from the “Queen of QVC,” Lori Greiner, MacKugler’s idea grew in new directions. As demonstrated in his first appearance on QVC, not only did Seedsheet provide its original sheet, it branched out to offer a fully equipped kit that included a seedsheet and cloth growing bag. Going beyond herbs and veggies, the company now has packages for those wanting to add flowers to their home or garden. Just add soil, and you are good to go.

Grow Your Own Garden Kit Seed Sheet by Lori Greiner on QVC

Seedsheet’s marketing approach differs from competitors in the home-grow space as the product is sold based on the vision of what consumers can do with the end results of their labor. Kits are cleverly designed with eye-catching packaging for creating herbs, salads, and Caprese (although cheese is not included). Each kit sold for $24.96 on QVC in early April.

The indoor gardening/desk gardening/home grow space is simultaneously moving in many directions. While Seedsheet’s concept is novel, the idea is more about packaging than a market disruptor. The internet is loaded with companies such as Bloomin’ who make “seed sheets” that can be put in a planter or a readily available cloth bag similar to the one with Seedsheet. In fact, inexperienced home gardeners can plant herbs or microgreens in a folded-over paper towel and achieve the same results as Seedsheet.

The vast range of startups hoping to dominate this interesting opportunity hopes to take advantage of millennials who want a food experience that focuses on healthy eating and convenience. The million-dollar (or more) question is whether the young post-digital, short-attention-span literati want to make the effort—as slight as it is—to tend to their techy gardens on a regular basis. What we will learn over the next year or so is whether this is a breakthrough idea or a solution in search of a market.

Amidst Coffee Makers & Cookware, SproutsIO Talks Personal Produce At Housewares

Amidst the coffee makers, cookware and bartenderbots in Chicago this week at the International Home and Housewares Show, SproutsIO stood out as the one and only maker of a connected microgarden.

The SproutsIO microgarden, which allows an individual to grow vegetables in their home without soil or sunlight, is headed to market this year after a successful Kickstarter campaign last fall in which the company raised over $116 thousand. The SproutsIO will retail for $799, a price company CEO Jenny Broutin Farah believes will come down over time as they reach more efficiencies through high-volume manufacturing.

Broutin Farah told me (you can view the interview above) that one of the major benefits of SproutsIO is it grows vegetables much more quickly and efficiently than traditional soil-growing. The reason, she said, is the device can fully tailor growing conditions to each seed type, something which is difficult if outright impossible in traditional growing environments. According to Broutin Farah, SproutsIO can grow vegetables with just 2% of the water required in a traditional soil garden and 40% of the nutrients.

The company, which was one of the 15 startup showcase finalists at the Smart Kitchen Summit last October, will also monetize through selling seeds through a subscription service to user of the SproutsIO device.

You can hear the full interview above with Jenny Broutin Farah.

The Year in Home Grow Systems

I have a fantasy of plucking juicy, ripe tomatoes from the vine in my garden, snipping a few basil leaves off the plant, and making myself a fresh summer salad. The problem is, I’m not much of a gardener. I’ve killed so many cacti that I don’t even try anymore: My buying a plant is pretty much sentencing it to death.

That’s why I’ve been so excited to see the home grow landscape blossom this year, with tons of systems, apps, and other devices to make growing food at home easier for even the worst black thumb like me.

Here are the most notable happenings and advancements in the past 12 months.

Grow It All

The Edyn solar-powered sensor is perfect for the detailed gardener with a big backyard plot: It sends data about weather, soil conditions, light frequency, and moisture levels to your phone, where you can manage it all. Meanwhile using sensors, the Gro app can also put together that data and even give you suggestions about specific plants. If you’re more of a hands-off person, the Parrot Pot senses the water level in the pot and waters your plant accordingly. These three devices don’t have to be used solely for produce, but they would certainly make it easier to grow vegetables and fruit at home.

Then there’s the FarmBot, which launched earlier this year and is available for preorder now for delivery in early 2017. The open-source home-farming robot plants seeds, kills weeds, and waters plants individually for their precise needs. It’s controlled through an app and grows enough food to feed one person year-round. Sounds like it might be advanced enough to override even my black thumb.

Home farming robot

Home Garden Copycats

Throughout the past year, we’ve seen so many indoor garden systems that we’re not sure how to separate the wheat from the chaff. Sure, they’re cool, but they’re also copycats of one another, which at some point makes all of them indistinguishable.

Ikea launched its indoor garden for year-round fresh produce, SproutsIO kicked off its connected platform and app, Japanese company Foop brought its hydroponic pod to market, and Opcom launched its GrowBox. Still in the development stages, Everbloom conceptualized its grow fridge, Click & Grow raised funds on Kickstarter for its Smart Garden, and an entrepreneur at Purdue has created what’s essentially a Keurig for hydroponic gardening.

Then there are the 7Sensors Grow Box and Grobo, systems both designed to grow weed but that will work for any other plants too (yeah, like we’re gonna care about peppers when pot is in the picture).

All of these are designed for small spaces, perfect for big cities and tiny kitchens. They almost universally have some sort of pod (with or without soil) and an app to help make the growing process easier.

In short, we have a very crowded market with a lot of systems that essentially do the same thing. Over the next year or so we’ll see some of them weeded out, with only a few remaining: It will come down to the best interface, prettiest design, and most interactive and helpful support and community.

Let’s Talk About Flavor for a Second (VIDEO)

Lately when I talk to chefs and home cooks about the type of food they want to make, I keep hearing the words “like my grandma used to make.” It’s become shorthand for all-natural, healthy food with honest flavor, created using painstakingly slow processes.

I’m totally on board, except for that last part, about the analog attitude. There’s so much technology that can vastly improve the taste and flavor of your food, so that it’s like what your grandma used to make, but even better.

Take a device like the pressure cooker. “A pressure cooker can produce exceptionally tender results while maximizing the flavor extracted from the ingredients,” writes molecular gastronomy guru Heston Blumenthal in the foreword to the Fast Slow Pro brand manual. Sure, you could spend more than 12 hours making chicken stock — or you could get even richer flavors in 1 hour with a pressure cooker, especially one with a screen that gives you instructions and tells you when everything is finished cooking. I recently started using one and have been astounded at the flavor of the foods I make in it: creamy roasted potatoes, intense stock, tender octopus, you name it. Grandma may not have cooked this way, but her recipes would have been even better if she had.

There’s another reason the analog logic doesn’t quite make sense: Grandma (or maybe great-grandma) used to grow her own tomatoes or buy them from a farmstand down the street. Now we go to a megagrocery store to get those tomatoes. “Our food system is not designed for taste and flavor. It’s designed for travel,” said Jennifer Broutin Farah, the CEO of SproutsIO, at the recent Smart Home Summit (watch the video below). That means the food we eat tastes more like cardboard than carrots, cucumbers, or kale. No wonder no one wants to eat their vegetables.

SproutsIO’s connected system makes it easy for everyone (black thumbs included) to grow their own produce at home: The device helps you grow vegetables and fruit from seeds in its modular system, and its smartphone app gives you real-time data about how it’s going. Plus it learns from you to help you grow better. The idea is that if those vegetables and fruits were easy to grow and tasted better, everyone would want to eat them, improving their overall health.

And it’s only one of many kitchen gadgets and products designed to improve your experiences with food, whether that’s growing, cooking, or eating it, to change our diabetes- and obesity-laden country into a healthier one. After all, as Farah said, “small-scale solutions that have high leverage can create great impact.”