German AgriTech Neofarms Relies On NASA Technology To Cultivate Plants

How would you describe Neofarms in a few words?

At Neofarms, we are developing an automated indoor greenhouse that fits into any kitchen. Combining urban gardening, vertical farming and aeroponics we want to offer health‐conscious metropolitans the possibility to easily cultivate their own plants with less effort, less water consumption, no additional chemicals, and no need to throw plants away.

What inspired you to create the startup? How did it all start?

Agricultural companies have pushed the natural boundaries of production to their limits, the demand for non-renewable mineral fertilizers is skyrocketing, mass production and transport demand ever-increasing amounts of fossil fuels. Being dissatisfied about this and the huge loss of taste and nutrition leafy vegetables, fruits and herbs can experience during the transportation from the field to the supermarket and furthermore, the contamination of these plants with pesticides and herbicides Maximilian (Richter, Ed.) and I were inspired to revolutionize the way we cultivate plants.

At the end of 2015, Max and I began developing the now established system while still studying Industrial Design and Biotechnology. Our dream of operating a company that offers an alternative to regular farming to everyone turned into reality when we founded the Neofarms GmbH (LLC, Ed.) in 2016. Since then, the goal has stayed the same: we want to change the way of cultivating plants and give individuals the opportunity to grow plants rich in vitamins and taste in their own kitchen.

You make use of NASA technology to bring vertical farms to the homes of users. How does it work and what’s the benefit for the user?

The NASA technology you are referring to is the already mentioned aeroponics. Instead of using liquid water around the roots of the plants as regular hydroponics does, aeroponics holds the plants with their roots suspended in midair. Water and nutrients are delivered to the plants via a really fine mist that circulates inside of the system. This way, the plant’s root systems absorb vital oxygen a lot faster, quickening their growth. Additionally, the use of this method enables us to stress the plants with drier periods in which they are metabolically forced to produce an even more intense taste. This is a tricky task for competing systems as our implementation of aeroponics offers the customer greater productivity and flexibility than competing products. The system is fully automated to ensure ease of use and can produce enough greens for two individuals with only 0.25 m2 of footprint and up to 2 m2 of growing surface.

On top of all this, there are the commonly known benefits of hydroponics, aeroponics, vertical farming and urban gardening: Plants can be cultivated all year round, they grow without soil thus making it a cleaner experience and letting them grow a few times faster and with up to 70% less nutrients and 95% less water compared to traditional farming.

AgriTech is a growing sector, you already mentioned that the competition rises. What makes Neofarms stand out from the crowd? What is the key differentiator?

At the moment, we are the only ones to use mist-based aeroponics in a product with our dimensions. This provides our customers with some major advantages: Plants grow faster, the greens taste better and our system is far more productive and flexible than competing products.

It is possible to stack up to eight growing layers on top of each other without adding a lot of weight or complexity to the system. This creates a possible growth area of up to two-square-meters producing as much as a twenty-square-meter garden could in every given year. Furthermore, plants in a Neofarm do not spoil and can be harvested just before consumption so that they still contain all the vitamins unlike plants bought in a supermarket. After harvesting, the drawer can be replaced at any height inside the Neofarm. This “plug & play” system favors the greatest possible adaptation to the growth height of the plants and allows for a greater variety of cultivated plants.

Are you using Neofarms internally? How does that affect the viewpoints of the development team?

We have been testing the output of our own prototypes internally and it has clearly motivated everyone. One of the first questions that come to mind when you talk about new farming techniques such as hydro- or aeroponics is always the taste. After taste-testing plants straight out of such a system, we realized how well they tasted, which strengthened our beliefs in our vision.

We’ve recently featured you in our Breakdown on Startup Driven Innovation in agriculture. Which cutting-edge technologies will this sector experience in the near future, in your opinion?

We feel like the biggest changes will come from precision farming, vertical farming, and biotechnology. All of them already play major roles in the industry but their impact in the next decades will skyrocket.

Hopefully, we will see more and more thought-out combinations of those techniques that manage to combine productivity with sustainability. Imagine tall vertical farms with a small ecological and physical footprint growing advanced corn or rice that uses less light and space. If done right concepts like this could help us keep up with the growing population or could even allow us to free up land for the reestablishment of forests and wildlife to strengthen the ecosystem.

What is the biggest challenge that the company has faced?

As an innovative hardware startup that is entering or even creating a totally new market together with others, our biggest challenge so far has been to access funding quickly. The majority of investors is focused on fast ROIs mainly in the software area. Moreover, the fact that the market is just beginning to form makes it hard to clearly predict its outcomes. But with vertical farming and urban gardening turning into real trends and being more present than ever in our every-day-lives this is getting easier and currently, we are satisfied with our financial situation.

If there is one thing you could wish for in improving the European startup ecosystem – what would it be?

Europe needs more investors who believe in great new innovations and in the long-term visions of the founders. Quick money is great and economic viability is critical but we feel that a purely ROI based investment atmosphere is the wrong way to go. Europe needs more passionate business angels who are not afraid to take risks in order to make the world a better place.

What’s next for Neofarms?

Currently, we are working on producing the first small series of prototypes of the fourth-generation, which will be part of multiple pilot projects in the next year. We plan to enter the mass market as soon as possible and will also be pushing towards a bigger public awareness of the technology itself as well as our company.

We will continue to widen our partner network, increase marketing and go global in the long run. Our vision is being a quality leader and offering a product that combines productivity, quality, and design.

What’s one piece of advice you can give to fellow founders for their startup?

The biggest advice from our side is to keep it lean! You have to find the right balance between great people and know-how within your company and good external advisors and service providers in order to reduce overhang and the risk of running out of money too soon. This is particularly important for hardware.

Also, patience and a strong will are quite important. Don’t give up and always have multiple strategies to solve a given problem.

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