$17M for dynamic greenhouse lighting

Together with the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF), Demeter IM, and Unigrains, RED Horticulture closed a 17 million Series A funding round to drive its growth and invest in the development of its high-performance lighting strategies.

Part of the financing comes from a banking pool (BPI, BNP Paribas, CIC, Crédit Agricole, Société Générale) and support programs from BPI. Based in the Netherlands and France, the company has developed a dynamic lighting solution for high-tech greenhouse operations.

Photobiological LED lighting solutions to reduce energy consumption in greenhouses
RED Horticulture contributes to more sustainable agriculture through new lighting technologies. Applicable to many high-tech greenhouse operations, RED Horticulture's solution is based on dynamic spectrum LED lights that precisely activate the photoreceptors of plants in greenhouses and are controlled via the AI-powered proprietary platform MyRED.

"Whether the goal is to reduce energy consumption, increase yields, shorten crop development times, or achieve outstanding product quality, By providing the right light at the right time, growers using our lighting strategy achieve higher yields and better crop quality while saving energy resources," the team says.

"In the case of studies, strawberry growers have increased yields by 35 percent and reduced the time from sowing to harvesting their crop by 20 percent. At the same time, young plant breeders have reduced energy consumption by up to 60 percent and achieved better crop morphology using our lighting strategy."

ECBF leads RED Horticulture's 17 million growth capital funding round
Founded in 2020, ECBF invests in deep tech companies that support the transition to a sustainable and bio-based circular economy. With this new investment, the sustainability-driven fund aims to support RED Horticulture's innovative photobiological lighting strategies to make crop cultivation more efficient and reduce energy consumption in agriculture.

Stéphane Roussel, Partner at ECBF, comments: "Controlled environment agriculture (which includes greenhouses) is poised to grow fast because of the many advantages it offers: producing healthy and nutritious crops close to where they are consumed while using less soil and water and with reduced usage of chemicals. We were impressed by the boldness and vision of RED's founding team to offer a solution that optimizes light as any other input in the greenhouse. Leveraging its strong agronomic expertise, RED offers the possibility to growers to both automate their operations further and optimize for what matters to them (be it yield, energy, product quality)." The fundraising was also subscribed by Demeter IM and Unigrains, an agri-food specialized investor.

Funding enables research and growth
The capital raised will be used to develop the high-performance lighting strategies together with customers and innovation partners, as well as to support internal research at the PARC, Photobiology & Agronomic Research Centre, and RED's agronomy center in Nantes, France. Additionally, the capital will be used to increase the acceptance of the RED solution in all growing market segments.

Louis GOLAZ, CEO, states: "Since its establishment, RED Horticulture has experienced impressive growth in an intensely competitive market. We have consistently believed in the unique advantages of our dynamic lighting solution, characterized by its user-friendliness, unparalleled flexibility, and unmatched scalability, which has continuously set us apart in the industry. Our latest funding round with ECBF, Demeter, and Unigrains testifies to the continuing success of our hard work and unshakeable faith in our product. Made up of top-level investors, this transaction firmly solidifies RED Horticulture's position as the frontrunner in the field of dynamic horticultural lighting."