Gardin is giving growers early insight into plant health and development through the company’s optical photosynthesis sensor and AI, which measures crop photosynthesis in real time.
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 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, enabling growers to make informed decisions, with trials already showing growers can achieve 20-30% in energy savings. 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 $200bn 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.
UK fruit producer Agriculture Investments Limited, 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.
Fromboer reported a 5% yield increase per square metre 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 and 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.”
With this new round of funding, Gardin will enhance its platform and grow its commercial team to expand the customer base across continents.
