Gardin Raises $4.5M to Advance Precision Agriculture with Breakthrough Photosynthesis Sensor & AI Platform to Monitor Greenhouse Crops’ Health in Real Time
Gardin Raises $4.5M to Advance Precision Agriculture with Breakthrough Photosynthesis Sensor & AI Platform to Monitor Greenhouse Crops’ Health in Real Time
May 07, 2025
Gardin Agritech has raised a $4.5M Seed 2 financing round led by Navus Ventures with participation from new investor Oxford Innovation Finance as well as existing investors LDV Capital, MMC Ventures, Seedcamp, Alchimia Investments and angel investors.
Oxford, UK – (TBD for exclusive) – Gardin is growing their list of customers leveraging their novel plant photosynthesis sensor that enables farmers to interact directly with their crops. By providing unique insights, it helps optimise resource use, improve energy efficiency, reduce crop loss and support climate-resilient farming. Gardin’s technology also aids research into hardier seed varieties, contributing to a more sustainable and secure food supply.
The news comes at a critical time for the $200 billion global Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) market, which is expanding rapidly due to rising demand for reliable food supplies and decreasing setup costs. Yet the sector faces mounting pressures: energy and labour costs have surged, emissions regulations are tightening and there’s a shortage of skilled growers to operate indoor farms, greenhouses and seed breeding businesses. Existing tools lack the sophistication to process vast amounts of data and deliver timely insights, leaving many operations struggling to adapt efficiently. This underscores a pressing need for AI-powered solutions capable of analysing large swathes of data in real time – enabling smarter, automated decisions and unlocking the full potential of precision agriculture.
Agriculture Investments Limited, one of the UK’s most progressive fruit producers, adopted Gardin’s technology after seeing its potential to deliver scalable, confident decision-making for more resilient, high-quality crops. “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 scalably…. Until we met Gardin. Gardin’s unique sensor + AI is able to detect changes in crop photosynthesis and provide clear, actionable insights based on that. As a result, within a couple of months of trialling Gardin’s product we decided to sign a multi-year contract,” said David Moore, Director of Agriculture at Agriculture Investments.
Gardin Agritech also partners with industry leaders including Fromboer and Ridder to help them optimise their customer operations through real-time crop data and AI-powered insights.
Fromboer reports a 5% yield increase per square meter thanks to more uniform, high-quality production and improved cost control. “The sensor contributes to homogeneous production with high quality and cost control. Overall, I estimate yield is at least 5% higher per square meter,” said Leonard Boer, Owner & Head Grower at Fromboer.
Ridder highlights Gardin’s ability to drive profitability boosts of up to 30%, yield gains of 15%, and early detection of crop stress weeks in advance – marking a shift from traditional climate control to data-driven "crop control." “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,” said Sander Baraké, CTO at Ridder. “Results include profitability boosts of up to 30% by optimizing winter LED efficiency and maximising summer light. Yield increases of up to 15% and early detection of biotic and abiotic stresses by up to 4 weeks before crop walking,” he continued.
Gardin’s proprietary optical sensor and AI technology measures crop photosynthesis in real time, giving growers early insight into plant health and development – often before visible signs of stress appear. This allows for faster, more targeted interventions, resulting in improved yields, better crop quality and more efficient use of resources such as water, light and energy. Clients have reported up to 10x return on investment. Since commercial launch in June 2023, Gardin’s sensors have been deployed across a wide range of environments – from polytunnels in Spain and Morocco to greenhouses in the Netherlands and Canada – and used successfully on more than 20 crop species, from algae to tomatoes. In 2025, the company is doubling down on light optimisation and energy efficiency, with trials already showing growers can achieve 20-30% in energy savings.
The planet is demanding more from agriculture – more food, grown with fewer resources and without exceeding environmental limits. CEA offers part of the solution, but gaps in technical knowledge and slow progress in advanced genetics are holding the industry back. Gardin addresses this challenge by becoming the intelligence layer powering real-time response agriculture – bridging the critical gap between plants and their climate.
Led by serial entrepreneur Sumanta Talukdar, Gardin’s deep tech, multidisciplinary team has developed a platform that delivers real-time insights into crop health and performance at scale. Sumanta, who previously co-founded and exited WaveOptics for over $500 million, brings decades of experience across optics, photonics, sensors and computer science, with past roles at Oxsensis, BAE Systems, Sharp, and Honeywell Analytics.
“Navus Ventures are in my opinion the best Ag focussed investor in Europe with a deep knowledge and network in this ecosystem. We are thrilled that such an agriculture leader believes in our unique photosynthesis sensor & AI platform to monitor greenhouse crops’ health in real time. The whole Gardin team is very pleased to partner with Navus,” said Sumanta Talukdar, Founder & CEO of Gardin.
With this new round of funding, Gardin will enhance its platform and grow their commercial team to expand its customer base across continents. Available jobs are listed here.[1]
“Gardin has developed a unique affordable technology that gives growers an actual pulse on their plants and therefore 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.
“We at LDV Capital are thrilled to partner with agriculture domain experts such as Navus Ventures and continue supporting Gardin. Their advanced optics and imaging AI platform will help drive sustainable and high-ROI food production in greenhouses worldwide,” said Evan Nisselson, Founder and General Partner at LDV Capital.
About Gardin
Gardin is transforming horticulture with cutting-edge sensor technology and an AI-powered software platform that empowers growers to optimise plant health, reduce inputs (energy, water, fertiliser, etc.) and increase yields. As the missing link in data-driven growing for indoor farms, greenhouses and seed breeding operations, Gardin delivers pioneering hardware built for scale – affordable, autonomous and robust across all plant species. Its real-time measurement of photosynthetic activity provides an unparalleled dataset to directly monitor the plant’s health.
About Navus (CEA Enterprises)
Navus is a venture capital firm focused on high-tech and sustainable start-ups and scale-ups, and is part of the family office affiliated with Lely. The company invests in businesses that actively contribute to the ongoing development of sustainable, innovative, and efficient food production, with the aim of making the agricultural sector future-proof. Navus takes a hands-on, pragmatic, and results-driven approach: decisions are made quickly, and management teams are supported on both a strategic and operational level to accelerate growth and maximize impact.
About Oxford Innovation Finance
Oxford Innovation Finance is the home of OION, one of the oldest and largest Angel Investment Networks in the UK, and the Oxford Innovation EIS Growth Fund. Providing investors with the opportunity to invest in pre-screened opportunities either directly through our Angel Network or indirectly via our EIS Fund, and providing companies with the opportunity to secure investment from a large, diverse investor base. In 2023 OION was recognised as the most active Angel Network in the UK, according to data compiled by Beauhurst.
About LDV Capital
LDV Capital is a thesis-driven early-stage venture fund investing in people building businesses powered by visual technology that leverage computer vision, machine learning and artificial intelligence to analyze visual data. Deep knowledge of the domain, extensive expert network and unique platform initiatives have made LDV Capital a leader in the visual tech ecosystem. Led by serial entrepreneur Evan Nisselson, LDV Capital has been investing in pre-seed and seed-stage teams across North America and Europe since 2012.
About MMC Ventures
MMC is a venture capital firm built by a multi-generational team with diverse backgrounds. For over two decades, we have partnered with over 100 early-stage founders to help them grow their start-ups. As a research-led investor, we have a deep appreciation for the emerging technologies that will reshape our economy over the coming decades.
About Seedcamp
Seedcamp is a European seed-stage venture capital fund, headquartered in London, launched in May 2007 by a group of 30 European investors. The fund's Managing Partners are Reshma Sohoni and Carlos Espinal.
About Alchimia Investments
Alchimia is an investment company primarily operating in the venture capital sector. Leveraging the expertise of its team and advisors, Alchimia invests and co-invests in high-growth potential opportunities, offering not only capital but also dedicated strategic and operational support.
