As global food systems face increasing pressure from climate change, labour shortages, and rising demand, greenhouse agriculture is becoming a critical pillar of modern food production. Yet even this controlled environment is struggling with workforce constraints. Eternal.ag, a startup developing autonomous harvesting robots for greenhouses, has raised €8 million to address this challenge and scale its robotic platform.
The funding round included investment from Simon Capital, Oyster Bay Venture Capital, EquityPitcher Ventures, and Backbone Ventures. The company plans to use the capital to accelerate product development, expand deployments across Europe, and extend its technology to additional crop types.
Automation for a changing agricultural landscape
Greenhouses offer a more stable and efficient alternative to traditional outdoor farming. They allow for year round production while reducing exposure to weather variability, pests, and land constraints. However, maintaining greenhouse operations still relies heavily on manual labour, particularly for tasks such as harvesting.
Labour availability in this sector has been declining steadily. In Europe, the workforce supporting greenhouse agriculture has decreased significantly over the past decade, creating structural shortages that are expected to worsen in the coming years. This has made it increasingly difficult for growers to maintain consistent operations.
Eternal.ag is addressing this issue by developing robots capable of performing physically demanding harvesting tasks without human intervention. The goal is to enable greenhouses to operate continuously, even in the absence of a stable workforce.
Introducing autonomous harvesting systems
The company’s first commercial product, called Harvester, is designed specifically for tomato greenhouses. The robot operates autonomously and can work for up to 22 hours a day, providing consistent output across long periods.
Harvester is part of a broader AI powered system that not only performs harvesting but also ensures quality control. By analysing crops in real time, the system helps determine optimal cutting points and maintains produce quality.
This combination of robotics and artificial intelligence allows the platform to adapt to variations in plant growth, greenhouse layouts, and daily operational conditions, which are common challenges in agricultural environments.
A modular and scalable platform
Eternal.ag’s technology is built as a modular system, enabling it to expand beyond harvesting into other greenhouse tasks over time. This approach allows the platform to evolve alongside the needs of growers, supporting a wider range of operations as the technology matures.
The company envisions a future where greenhouse farming is fully automated, with robots handling all major tasks. By 2040, it aims to enable facilities that can operate without manual intervention, creating a more resilient and scalable model for food production.
Simulation driven development
A key aspect of Eternal.ag’s development process is its use of simulation first techniques. Instead of relying solely on physical testing, the company trains and evaluates its robots in virtual greenhouse environments.
This approach allows for faster iteration cycles, reducing the time required to refine and improve the technology. Once deployed in real world settings, the robots continue to generate data, which is fed back into the system to enhance performance and adaptability.
By combining simulation with real world learning, Eternal.ag aims to build systems that can handle the variability inherent in agricultural operations.
Building for global food resilience
The company was founded by Renji John and Sherry Kunjachan and has grown to a team of 26 employees working across Europe and India. With headquarters in Cologne and additional operations in Bengaluru, Eternal.ag is positioning itself to serve global agricultural markets.
The broader vision is to contribute to a more resilient food supply chain by reducing dependence on manual labour and increasing the efficiency of greenhouse production. As demand for fresh produce continues to rise, automation is expected to play an increasingly important role in meeting global needs.
With new funding in place, Eternal.ag is focused on scaling its technology and expanding its presence in key markets. By combining robotics, artificial intelligence, and advanced simulation, the company is working to redefine how food is produced in controlled environments, moving toward a future where greenhouse operations are fully autonomous and capable of sustaining growing global demand.