The Leipzig-based tech startup Urgrow receives six-figure seed funding. The Technologiegründerfond Sachsen acts as lead investor, while business angels and a family office from the BayStartUP investor network, CK Venture Capital, also participate.
Urgrow is developing a smart and sustainable indoor garden for the home that enables the cultivation of high-quality food in one's own home throughout the year. Delivery of the first indoor gardens produced in Germany is planned from April 2021, and they will be available in the company's webshop from June 2021. With the fresh capital, Urgrow is expanding its team and preparing for market entry. The Urgrow investors bring specialist know-how from the areas of digital business models, data models, sensor concepts, sales and SCM.
BayStartUP Magazin "StartUPdate"
This article first appeared in our magazine issue 01/2021.
The heart of the indoor gardens is their technology: LED lighting reproduces the daylight spectrum, which enables optimal plant growth. Due to a special design, no stray light occurs. The app supplied makes the whole system smart. It calculates the optimal time for harvesting with the specially developed algorithms and the measured values of the installed sensors and informs in real time about upcoming care measures. Lighting, irrigation and nutrient supply are coordinated.
The body of the indoor gardens is biodegradable and the technology can be completely recycled. For nutrient supply, Urgrow uses BrightSoil®, a medium developed together with the University of Budapest. This is an organic substrate that can simply be disposed of as organic waste after use. It contains all the nutrients that plants need from sowing to harvesting. The seeds bear the demanding Demeter seal.