hexafarms, a commercial horticulture operating system combining proprietary hardware with AI-powered crop intelligence software, has raised €4.8 million in Seed funding. The round was led by Ananda Impact Ventures and Green Generation Fund, with participation from Grey Silo Ventures and better ventures, alongside existing backers Speedinvest, Mudcake, and Techstars. The company also secured additional public funding through a German government-backed program.
Funding and Grant Support
The new capital will support the deployment of hexafarms' wireless crop sensing and automated pest and disease scouting across the DACH region, Benelux, and Spain. The company also received Rentenbank's Startup Grant and a subordinated loan of up to €800,000 through a German federal government-backed program for early-stage agriculture-related businesses. This combined financial backing will help accelerate commercial growth in key European production markets.
Addressing a Persistent Yield Gap
Commercial growers can leave as much as 30% of potential yield unrealized, according to hexafarms' own analysis. This happens when growing conditions drift from the optimum, harvest forecasts become unreliable, and pest and disease damage is only detected once it turns visible. As operations grow and centralize against a backdrop of labor shortages and evolving disease pressures, manual scouting and spreadsheets are increasingly difficult to rely on at scale.
A Unified Operating System
hexafarms has built a single operating system designed to give growers a continuous view of what is happening across their crops and what is likely to happen next. It combines wireless crop sensing, yield forecasting, and autonomous pest and disease detection, bringing together data and insights that traditionally sit in separate systems. That intelligence lets growers take action before yield is lost.
Sensing, Forecasting, and Detection
The company's wireless sensors capture data on climate, fertigation, substrate, drainage, and light every five minutes. Yield forecasting generates rolling forecasts for each crop and production zone using more than 70 parameters. Autonomous robots scan every single plant daily, covering two to three hectares and detecting early signs of pests and disease.
Commercial Traction
The technology is already used by more than 50 growers across 13 countries, including SanLucar, one of Europe's largest fruit and vegetable companies, and grower cooperatives Elo and Royal ZON. This year, customers have managed more than €300 million worth of produce using the company's operating system and hardware. The platform's AI models currently cover around 50 cultivars across major greenhouse and soft-fruit crops, including tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, aubergines, and a range of berries.
Subscription Model and Integration
The operating system and hardware are available on a subscription basis, with hexafarms designing, deploying, and maintaining the technology. This shifts cost from capital expenditure to operating expenditure and reduces the need for growers to manage separate technology systems. The platform is API-first and integrates with climate computers growers already run, including those from Priva, Hoogendoorn, and Ridder.
hexafarms' Seed round positions the company to expand its footprint in commercial horticulture at a time when data-driven crop management is becoming essential. By combining sensing, forecasting, and detection in one operating system, it aims to help growers recover more of the yield that currently goes unrealized. The backing from impact and climate-focused investors signals confidence in technology that supports more efficient and resilient food production.