SAIA Agrobotics, a Dutch agritech startup developing advanced robotic systems for greenhouse automation, has closed a €10 million Series A funding round to accelerate commercialisation of its “plants-to-robot” greenhouse automation platform, according to multiple industry reports.
The funding round was led by Check24 Impact GmbH with participation from the European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund, existing investors Navus Ventures and Oost NL, and other supporters, bringing SAIA’s total capital raised to more than €20 million.
SAIA’s technology reimagines greenhouse automation by transporting plants to stationary robotic systems that perform scanning, trimming and harvesting tasks, rather than deploying mobile robots around crops. The approach is designed to increase operational efficiency, reduce labour requirements and enhance production data visibility.
Dr Ruud Barth, CEO and co-founder of SAIA Agrobotics, said the company has completed what it described as the world’s first fully automated greenhouse, where plants are routed weekly to robotic units for automated harvesting and monitoring. SAIA projects the system can boost crop yields by about 20 per cent while cutting total greenhouse labour by roughly 50 per cent.
Industry observers noted that SAIA’s funding and development milestones position the company to enter commercial markets as early as 2026, amid rising demand for automation solutions in controlled-environment agriculture and ongoing labour shortages in horticulture.
Investment manager Wout Morrenhof of Oost NL said the company exemplifies how innovation emerging from research institutions such as Wageningen University & Research can address major food production challenges through digitisation and robotics.
The Series A backing arrives after six years of technology development, multiple international patents and early deployments with commercial growers, underscoring broader momentum in European agritech and greenhouse automation segments.
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