Canopii looks to succeed where past indoor farms have not | TechCrunch

"Portland, Oregon-based Canopii builds robotic greenhouses that can autonomously run the whole crop-growing process from seeding to harvest without human intervention. These greenhouses can produce up to 40,000 pounds of produce a year while requiring only one spigot of water and taking up the same space as a basketball court."

"Now, five years later, we have hit a major milestone [for] the farm. We have an autonomous farm that grows everything from seed to harvest without any human intervention, and we did so with a very small team and very little capital, which I think is very different from what the rest of the industry had experienced."

David Ashton founded Canopii, a Portland-based agtech startup, inspired by witnessing lush lettuce farms thriving during California's historic drought. The company builds robotic greenhouses capable of autonomously managing the entire crop-growing process without human intervention. These facilities produce up to 40,000 pounds of produce annually while requiring only one water spigot and occupying space equivalent to a basketball court. Currently designed to grow herbs and specialty greens like baby bok choy and gai lan, the farms are manufactured by GK Designs. Ashton developed the concept after an agtech company he planned to join filed for bankruptcy. Following NSF grants totaling $1.25 million, he achieved a major milestone: a fully autonomous farm. Canopii has raised approximately $3.6 million in funding.

Read at TechCrunch