IUNU announced it has raised an oversubscribed $24 million Series B round of financing led by Lewis & Clark AgriFood. Existing investors S2G Ventures, Ceres Partners and Astanor Ventures also participated. This funding will be used to accelerate the company’s growth plans, specifically around global sales expansion and new product introductions.
IUNU is developing the future of Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) with solutions designed to bring data to the forefront of decision making. The company works with companies across the ecosystem, including Pure Green Farms, Hollandia Produce, CubicFarm Systems Corp., the Red Hat Co-operative, Jamco Growers and Intelligent Growth Solutions (IGS) Limited.
Pure Green Farms' greenhouse view. LUNA AI robots are in the distance completing a run of the full greenhouse where they took photos of the crops.
The company first launched in the leafy greens market, and now has more than 25 percent market share in North America and 74 percent of the top leafy greens greenhouse growers in North America run on IUNU’s LUNA Platform. In addition to leafy greens, the company works with growers in the cannabis, floriculture and vine markets.
IUNU has seen an explosion of growth in recent months, expanding its team by 50 percent in the past six months in response to market demand for its solutions. In addition to its computer vision and artificial intelligence system, LUNA AI, every five minutes, a batch of crops is harvested in LUNA CMP, the company’s production and workforce management software.
“We are thrilled to be part of a company that is enabling CEA companies to be more efficient and ultimately enable consumers to access better quality fresh produce,” said Suhas Narayanaswamy, principal at Lewis and Clark AgriFood.
LUNA AI robots installed at a greenhouse.
"Greenhouse and vertical farming solve critical issues around food security, food safety and scarcity. IUNU’s technology brings efficiency gains to indoor farming and is providing a foundation for data-driven indoor growing operations going forward," said Cristina Rohr, managing director at S2G Ventures.
The CEA market is experiencing unprecedented growth right now. To address this, the company recently completed two acquisitions of companies in the industry: Artemis and CropWalk, and completed a brand refresh.
“This round of investment reflects the confidence institutional investors have in us. The conversation around autonomous growing has accelerated in the past year and we’re proud to be leading the way on this front,” said Adam Greenberg, CEO of IUNU.
“The CEA market has come to a point of proven expansion and we’re honored to be trusted by commercial operators who run their businesses on the LUNA Platform. This investment will continue fueling our growth,” said Allison Kopf, chief marketing officer and head of data products at IUNU.
As part of the Series B, Narayanaswamy joins the IUNU Board of Directors.
LUNA AI robots taking photos of crops in the greenhouse.
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