Cultivating Confidence: Gardin’s AI Crop Control Gains Ground with New Customer Wins and Fresh Funding

Courtesy: Gardin

As the $200 billion global Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) market races to expand amid growing pressure to produce more food with fewer resources, the sector is confronting an uncomfortable truth: technological gaps are limiting its ability to scale profitably. High energy costs, tightening emissions regulations, and a shortage of skilled growers are placing commercial greenhouses, vertical farms, and seed breeders under increasing strain. While the industry has made progress in automating climate control, it has long lacked tools sophisticated enough to interpret real-time crop-level data at scale. That is, until now.

Gardin, a UK-based agri-tech company specializing in AI-powered crop sensing, is emerging as one of the sector’s most promising solution providers. Its integrated sensor and AI platform delivers live data on crop photosynthesis, allowing growers to make smarter, faster, and more targeted interventions. The result? Higher yields, lower costs, and improved resilience—all without expanding farm footprints or increasing labour demands.

This technological leap is already winning over industry players. Agriculture Investments Limited, one of the UK’s leading fruit producers, recently adopted Gardin’s solution after successful trials demonstrated the technology’s ability to unlock new levels of decision-making confidence. “We have been long believers that to truly optimise food production we need to be able to change the greenhouse climate to adapt to the crop’s needs, but there was no solution on the market that could solve this with high confidence and scalability… until we met Gardin,” said David Moore, Director of Agriculture at Agriculture Investments. Moore confirmed that the company has now signed a multi-year agreement following the initial deployment.

Dutch grower Fromboer also reports measurable improvements, citing a 5% yield increase per square meter thanks to more uniform, high-quality production and better cost management. “The sensor contributes to homogeneous production with high quality and cost control. Overall, I estimate yield is at least 5% higher per square meter,” shared Leonard Boer, Owner & Head Grower at Fromboer.

Meanwhile, greenhouse technology leader Ridder highlighted Gardin’s role in advancing the industry from climate automation to true crop-led decision-making. “For many years now we have been able to effectively automate climate control around the crop. The next phase is to incorporate real-time feedback from the crop and move from ‘climate control’ towards ‘crop control’. Gardin has developed the key technology to enable this,” explained Sander Baraké, CTO at Ridder. According to Baraké, Gardin’s platform has shown potential to boost profitability by up to 30%, increase yields by as much as 15%, and detect crop stress up to four weeks earlier than traditional methods.

The momentum doesn’t stop with customer wins. Gardin has also secured $4.5M in a new round of funding led by Navus Ventures, a prominent agri-food investor with deep sector expertise. Sumanta Talukdar, Gardin’s founder and CEO—who previously co-founded and exited optics pioneer WaveOptics in a $500 million deal—emphasised the strategic value of the partnership. “Navus Ventures are in my opinion the best ag-focused investor in Europe with a deep knowledge and network in this ecosystem. The whole Gardin team is very pleased to partner with Navus,” he said.

Navus Ventures echoed this sentiment. “Gardin has developed a unique, affordable technology that gives growers an actual pulse on their plants and therefore their business. A great addition to our portfolio and fit with our strategy and background, we are looking forward to helping Sumanta and the Gardin team through the next phase of commercial scaling,” said Jaap Zijlstra, director at Navus.

With fresh capital in hand, Gardin plans to enhance its platform and scale its commercial operations to meet rising global demand. New hires across sales, customer success, and technical roles are already being sought to support the company’s international growth ambitions.

As CEA operators navigate increasing complexity in their production environments, Gardin’s combination of plant-level insights and AI-powered decision-making positions it as a valuable ally in the race to grow more with less. Whether for fruit, vegetables, or high-value crops, the shift from climate to crop control appears to be taking root.