Cologne-based startup launches autonomous tomato harvester as labour shortages intensify, targeting fully self-operating greenhouses by 2040.4e5re65
Eternal.ag, a startup building autonomous harvesting robots for greenhouses, today announced it has raised €8 million in funding from Simon Capital, Oyster Bay Venture Capital, EquityPitcher Ventures and Backbone Ventures.
Eternal.ag is developing fully autonomous robots that perform greenhouse crop work without human operators.
Greenhouses are increasingly essential for securing the year-round supply of fresh fruit and vegetables, being far more resilient to seasonal weather, climate change, land shortages and pests than outdoor farming. However, greenhouse labour availability is falling rapidly — in Europe, by as much as 30 per cent since 2010 — and forecasts say this trend will continue, leaving growers with structural staffing shortages.
By automating physically demanding harvesting work, eternal.ag’s robots enable greenhouses to operate reliably and continuously, even when labour is unavailable or inconsistent. By 2040, the company envisions fully automated greenhouse operations powered by robotics, requiring no manual operations.
Eternal.ag’s first commercial product to launch is Harvester, a fully autonomous harvesting robot designed for tomato greenhouses. Harvester operates up to 22 hours a day consistently and works as part of an intelligent AI-powered system to ensure the quality of produce and cut.
Built as a modular system, the platform is designed to expand over time with additional robotic functions to better serve broader greenhouse operations.
“Autonomous robots only work if they can handle real-world variability between plants, layouts, and daily operations,” said Renji John, CEO and co-founder of eternal.ag.
“We develop and validate our robots using simulation-first development. That allows us to train, test, and fail safely in virtual greenhouses — cutting iteration cycles from months to days.
Once deployed, every robot action feeds data back into the system, which is designed to learn, improve and scale.”
“Climate change, labour shortages, and rising demand are pushing food production to its limits,” said Niklas Leske, Principal at Simon Capital.
“Greenhouse horticulture is one of the most efficient and sustainable ways to grow fresh produce year-round.
Yet, labour shortages put the industry at risk, and robotics is the only future-proof solution to build a decentralised, resilient food supply chain for the next generation. eternal.ag’s experienced team has a deep understanding of what growers are up against and has developed a solution to tackle this in a sustainable and measured way.”
Founded by Renji John and Sherry Kunjachan, eternal.ag has built a team of 26 employees so far, working across Europe and India, with headquarters in Cologne and offices in Bengaluru.
The new funding will be used to accelerate product development, expand commercial deployments across Europe, and extend to additional crop types.