Agricool raises € 4 million to grow vegetables and fruit in cities

Agricool raises € 4 million to grow vegetables and fruit in cities

This French start-up has designed containers fully equipped to allow urban farmers to grow fruits and vegetables in town.

Start-ups love beautiful stories. That of Agricool begins with two sons of farmers, Guillaume Fourdinier and Gonzague Gru, who find it difficult to feed in town. "We did not understand why the vegetables we bought here were so bad compared to those we had in our parents," explains Guillaume Fourdinier in Le Figaro. The two friends begin to build a small kitchen garden in an apartment to grow strawberries themselves. A few months later, Agricool was born, a French start-up that wants to bring agriculture closer to cities thanks to containers where fruits and vegetables grow. The company announced on Wednesday a first fundraising of 4 million euros. The operation is led by Daphni, the new investment fund managed by Marie Ekeland. Agricool also attracted other investors such as Kima Ventures, Xavier Niel's fund, businessman Henri Seydoux, Jean-Daniel Guyot, co-founder of Captain Train, or Pierre Valade, co-founder of the Sunrise application.

Set the distance problem

"The main problem in our diet is the distance between our food and us," explains Guillaume Fourdinier. "The more we get away from our plate, the more we eat bad vegetables, which have been harvested too early or have been modified to resist transportation. And with the urbanization and the disappearance of farmland, this distance will only increase. "With Gonzague Gru, he imagined a system to grow fruits and vegetables in containers rather than in the ground, and Thus bring agriculture closer to the inhabitants of the towns. "The price per square meter in urban areas does not allow to cultivate in vegetable gardens as in the countryside. You have to be very productive, "says Guillaume Fourdinier.

The two friends developed a container of 32m2 with 3600 strawberry plants installed vertically. The fruit grows under LED lamps, misters and thanks to bumblebees that guarantee the pollination of the flowers. Agricool boasts a rate of return 120 times that of a conventional field, all without pesticides. After several months of tests in the countryside, the first "Cooltainer" is installed in the park of Bercy, in Paris. The operation is a media success.

 

With this fundraising, Agricool is ready to move up the pace. The company now has 30 employees, mostly agronomists and engineers. It has set up premises in La Courneuve, where it has warehouses to develop prototype containers. Three have already been designed. They are automated and can be controlled remotely.

Agricool hopes to launch its first containers in 2017. Its goal is to install 75 containers in the Paris region. She must also choose two new types of fruit or vegetables to grow, besides strawberries, and always without pesticides. Agricool bases its economic model on the collaborative economy. The containers will be rented to people who may become, according to them, full-time urban farmers. Once the harvest is done, the start-up will levy a percentage on the sales, which will be carried out in stores or structures validated beforehand. Fruits and vegetables will be available under the Agricool label. The start-up estimates that its urban farmers will be able to recover nearly 65,000 euros of annual revenue for three containers. Besides the rental of the containers, it promises a technical service to its partners. She devised a system of recognition of diseases thanks to photos taken in containers and artificial intelligence capable of detecting anomalies. "We do not want to replace farmers, but to meet the need of cities with a new model," explains Guillaume Fourdinier. "Between moving to Corrèze and eating vegetables full of pesticides, there is a solution."

share in the social medias 

join me in my channel youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjE7JpE0TfBqP6G1x7xvc4Q