Seasony raises €1.5M to bring mobile robot Watney to Europe & M. East

The round was led by North Ventures and EFIO (Export and Investment Fund of Denmark). Alongside them several prominent and experienced business angels invested including Vagn Ove Soerensen, Torben Wind, Klaus Holse, Barbara Taudorf Andersen, Nicolaj Reffstrup (Look Up Ventures) and many more.

This funding milestone will propel Seasony forward in its mission to make indoor farming more scalable, profitable, and sustainable through cutting-edge mobile robotics technology. The funds allow Seasony to accelerate its product development and expand towards key markets in the Middle East and North America.

Bringing mobile robotics automation to indoor farming

The core of Seasony is to bring the best of mobile robotics automation, otherwise mostly known from Amazon warehouses, into indoor farming. Using mobile robots, growers are offered a flexible and cost-effective automated solution as an alternative to both scissor lifts as well as static elevators and conveyor belts.

"We aspire for Watney to be the John Deere of indoor farming. Watney handles both heavy and dangerous lifting while analyzing each plant down to the smallest detail – with a memory that enables vertical farms to significantly streamline operations and get more output from every square meter," says Christopher Weis Thomasen, co-founder and CEO of Seasony.

Watney can work around the clock, from the moment the seeds are sown to when the plants are harvested. When Watney moves around in a vertical farm, it takes care of tasks such as moving plant trays up and down from 10-meter-high shelves and transporting them to different stations.All while constantly analyzing, reporting, and storing data about the characteristics of each individual plant and the environment in which they grow.

A combination of advanced sensors, robotics, and algorithms from Seasony allows for intervention at a much earlier stage in the vertical farming process. If a plant needs more water, nutrients, light, or CO2 then the systems will be able to provide this critical information. This creates the best conditions for the vertical farm to achieve maximum yield.

"We are thrilled to have successfully closed this funding round and are grateful for the support and trust shown by our investors," Christopher Weis Thomasen, co-founder and CEO of Seasony. "This significant investment will fuel our ability to drive innovation in vertical farming robotics and bring us closer to realizing our vision of a more sustainable and resilient food system."

About Seasony

Seasony is a robotics automation platform that improves scalability, profitability, and sustainability of vertical farms. With the autonomous mobile robot "Watney," we automate core processes in vertical farms and provide growers with valuable data insights – offered in a ‘Robotics-as-a-service' model.  

• By automating repetitive transportation tasks within cultivation rooms, Watney reduces costs by up to 65% and eliminates the need for expensive scissor lifts or elevator systems. 
• Growers benefit from Watney's on-board sensors and cameras, which enable quick and granular issue identification, saving time and money on crop walks and static sensors. 
• Additionally, Watney serves as an open platform, integrating with third-party technologies through open standards and APIs, offering growers endless possibilities for advanced analytics, harvesting solutions and much more.  

Read more at: https://www.seasony.io/

The People Behind

Seasony was created by three friends, dreamers, and entrepreneurs. Erkan (COO), Servet (CTIO), and Christopher (CEO) met each other when they were 10 years old and went to primary school together. They stuck together through their studies at DTU and CBS and their first jobs, where they gained valuable experience, including at Mobile Industrial Robots. Today, their friendship has evolved into the robotics company Seasony, which is a shining example of the next generation of green entrepreneurs. Seasony is built on Denmark's strengths in robotics and platform technology.

About Vertical Farming

The vertical farming market is estimated to reach a size of €25 billion by 2030 and will fundamentally transform the way a lot of food is produced by allowing continuous harvesting, reducing water usage by 95%, and eradicating the need for pesticides. Crops are grown in multiple levels in indoor climate-controlled settings. The fully controlled environment, optimized lighting and precise nutrient levels allow year-round growing with exponentially higher yields than open field or greenhouse growing. 

Today, indoor farming is used to cultivate a wide range of crops including basil, lettuce, strawberries, cannabis, and mushrooms. There are also already experiments involving more protein-rich crops. Vertical farming has the potential to be one of the answers to how we manage the uncertainty of cultivation in future food production, considering climate change and limited access to water and agricultural land.

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