Vivent Biosignals, the Swiss-based pioneer of “wearables for plants”, has announced new investment from Agri Investment Fund (AIF), Horticoop, Pymwymic and Swiss private investors. The funding will accelerate Vivent’s commercial scaling of its breakthrough plant biosignal monitoring technology, which is transforming crop management and sustainable food production.

“We are thrilled to welcome Agri Investment Fund as a new investor, joining Pymwymic and Horticoop,” said Carrol Plummer, Co-founder of Vivent Biosignals. “ This investment comes at a pivotal moment. In 2025, we successfully launched our live outdoor crop health platform, now monitoring more than 1,000 hectares across Europe. With Agri Investment Fund, we gain a partner deeply embedded in European agriculture and food value chains—exactly the kind of strategic alignment we need to accelerate our growth and deliver value at scale.”

Vivent ’s technology uses AI to interpret plants’ own biosignals, enabling growers to detect stress from pests, disease, drought and nutrient imbalances days, weeks or even months before visual symptoms appear. These “plant-first ” insights give farmers the ability to act early, improve yield stability, and use inputs more precisely. Vivent is the first company to commercialize real-time plant electrophysiology as a crop health diagnostic and prediction system—transforming the way growers understand and respond to what their plants need.

One of Vivent ’s satisfied clients, Tom Vlaemynck, Managing Director and CEO of TomatoMasters, comments “Vivent helps us improve fruit quality and reduce our waste percentage. From the first look at their model results we could already see that we needed to focus on changing different parameters than we expected.”

“Recent advances in AI allow us to interpret plants’ internal signal networks with a level of precision that was previously impossible,” said Dr. Nigel Wallbridge, Co-founder and Executive Chairman of Vivent Biosignals. “By scaling in outdoor agriculture, we’ve built the world’s largest dataset of crop biosignals—unlocking insights that benefit individual growers, research partners, and policymakers. With our new investors, we are accelerating the global shift toward plant-driven, resource-efficient agriculture as well as tackling some of the critical blights that threaten global food production.”

Vivent’s platform helps growers improve yields, optimize input use, and enable more sustainable crop protection strategies. Already proven in greenhouses and indoor farms, the technology is increasingly deployed across field crops such as berries, potatoes, apples, and grapes—providing continuous, real-time plant health insights across a wide range of production environments in Europe and North America. In addition to supporting growers directly, Vivent partners with leading suppliers in crop protection, fertilization, irrigation, and horticultural lighting to evaluate how plants respond to interventions—live, in situ, and in real time. Plant breeders also rely on
Vivent signals to assess the resilience of new varieties, accelerating the development of hardier crops.

“We see enormous potential for Vivent ’s technology to improve both farmer profitability and environmental sustainability,” said Patrik Haesen, CEO of Agri Investment Fund. “By giving crops a voice, Vivent is enabling a new era of precise, plant-led decision-making in agriculture—and we are excited to support the company’s growth.”

About Vivent Biosignals

Vivent Biosignals, founded by serial entrepreneurs Carrol Plummer and Dr. Nigel Wallbridge, provides real-time crop health monitoring and actionable agronomic insights by decoding plants’ own electrical signals with advanced AI. Our team of plant scientists, data scientists, and commercial specialists works with controlled-environment growers, agricultural distributors, food processors, and crop protection companies across Europe to help farmers improve productivity sustainably.

For more information, visit https://vivent-biosignals.com/ 

About Agri Investment Fund

Agri Investment Fund (AIF) is an agri-food focused investor supporting companies that deliver high-impact innovation across the agricultural value chain, from farm productivity to sustainablefood systems. AIF backs technologies that help future-proof European agriculture and increase resilience for growers, processors and consumers.

For more information, visit https://aifund.be/en/

About Horticoop

Horticoop is a cooperative with an active membership base of professional growers in the horticultural sector. Horticoop actively invests in businesses that contribute to the horticultural industry. In doing so, the cooperative supports a sector that meets the needs of a growing population while at the same time minimizing its environmental impact. For comments please contact Hend van Ravestein at H.vanRavestein@Hortic

For more information, visit www.horticoop.com

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Swiss startup Trilliome has won first prize in the EIT Food Accelerator Network’s “Food as Medicine” programme, receiving €50,000 in Tech Validation Funding.

The award supports the company’s mission to develop precision bioactives that reprogram the gut microbiome to restore brain and immune health for healthy aging. The funding will accelerate validation of Trilliome’s AI-driven discovery platform, which transforms upcycled plant sources into targeted gut bioactives that promote resilience and wellbeing.

A milestone year for Trilliome

2025 marks a breakthrough year for the Lausanne-based company. In addition to winning EIT Food’s top accelerator prize, Trilliome also earned second prize at the Aging Research and Drug Discovery (ARDD) Conference – one of the world’s leading events in longevity science – and the Probiota Americas Pioneer Prize for innovation in the microbiome field.

These achievements position Trilliome at the intersection of biotechnology, nutrition, and healthy aging, validating its science-led approach to redefining how food and bioactives can drive measurable health outcomes.

Turning plant waste into human health

Trilliome’s proprietary AI and human gut model platform identifies molecular combinations that reprogramme the microbiome, boosting keystone bacterial species and restoring functions linked to brain and immune health.

The company’s lead bioactive product is derived from upcycled fruit and plant waste streams, supporting both human health and planetary sustainability. Early studies in human models show increased levels of beneficial gut bacteria and higher production of short-chain fatty acids such as butyrate and propionate, key compounds for cognitive health, mood regulation, and immune balance.

Accelerating toward measurable impact

The EIT Food Tech Validation Award provides critical support as Trilliome advances toward clinical validation, scalable manufacturing, and regulatory readiness. These steps will help bring its innovations to market and enable new partnerships across the ingredients, supplements, and medical foods sectors.

Together with its partners and mentors, Trilliome is working to build a future where nutrition and biotechnology converge to deliver measurable health outcomes and promote healthy longevity.

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Ecorobotix, the global leader in AI-powered Ultra-High Precision (UHP) spraying, is driving the future of sustainable agriculture with innovations that improve crop health and efficiency.

Building on rapid growth, proven field results, and a strong financial foundation with $150 million raised in Series C ($45m, 2024) and Series D ($105m, 2025), the company will present its latest advancements at Agritechnica this November in Hanover.

Central to Ecorobotix’s momentum is its Plant-by-Plant™ AI technology, which can distinguish and treat each individual plant with unmatched precision, using a spray footprint of just a few centimeters. This approach reduces the use of pesticides and other crop protection products by as much as 95% while maintaining effectiveness. For growers, the benefits are far-reaching: the safe use of non-selective products, lower input costs, compliance with increasingly strict regulations, and ultimately, higher yields.

Fueling Innovation Through Investment

These new advances are made possible thanks to the company’s strong backing from global investors. The Series D round was led by Highland Europe, one of the continent’s top venture capital funds, with ECBF and McWin Capital Partners (via McWin Food Tech Fund) also joining as new investors.

“These latest investment rounds have allowed us to accelerate our innovation, expand into new crop types, broaden our product range, and bring our advanced crop algorithms to market faster. Thanks to the trust of our investors, we are scaling a proven solution to help deliver better-quality food for the world.”
Dominique Mégret, CEO

Showcasing New Innovation at Agritechnica 2025

This November at Agritechnica, Ecorobotix will unveil its latest innovation, setting a new standard for crop protection worldwide.

“Farmers today face rising costs, labor shortages, and pressure to reduce inputs while still producing more food. Our new innovation takes precision even further to help them meet those challenges.”
Dominique Mégret, CEO

About Ecorobotix’s new investors

Highland Europe invests in exceptional growth-stage technology and consumer companies. Formally launched in 2012, Highland Europe has raised over €2.75 billion. Highland’s collective history of investments across the US, Europe and China includes 45+ IPOs, 150+ M&A exits and 40 billion-dollar-plus companies.
The European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF) is the leading venture capital fund dedicated to accelerating Europe’s transition to a sustainable, circular bioeconomy. With €300 million under management, ECBF invests in growth-stage companies. As an Article 9 SFDR fund, ECBF combines rigorous ESG standards with deep industry expertise to scale impactful innovations.

McWin Capital Partners (“McWin”) is a specialist private equity and venture capital firm, dedicated to the food ecosystem. With deep industry expertise across three business segments; Food Tech, Foodservice and Restaurants, McWin’s purpose is to lead the food industry through positive change and create value on behalf of investors and portfolio companies of the McWin Funds by leveraging its scale, network and experience to deliver outstanding returns.

Ecorobotix also acknowledges the vital support of its long-term partners such as 4FOX Ventures, AQTON, BASF Venture Capital, Capagro, Cibus Capital, Flexstone Partners, Fondation Domaine de Villette, Meritech, Stellar Impact, Swisscanto, Swisscom Ventures and Yara Growth Ventures.

About Ecorobotix

Ecorobotix is a Swiss B Corporation® certified company whose mission is to transform agriculture through artificial intelligence and its exclusive Plant-by-Plant™ technology. This technology, unique in the world, identifies and treats each plant individually with unmatched precision, reducing the use of crop protection products by up to 95% while maintaining treatment effectiveness and crop health. With more than 25 crop algorithms already available, its flagship product ARA is the world’s most versatile Ultra-High Precision sprayer, capable of targeting both specific crops and different types of weeds. Present in more than 20 countries in Europe, America, and Oceania, Ecorobotix is redefining the standards of sustainable crop protection.

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Conthey, Canton of Valais, Switzerland — Insolight, in collaboration with Agroscope, Romande Energie, and the canton of Valais, inaugurates its first agrivoltaic installation on orchard crops in Conthey. This opens a promising potential in the development of integrated solutions that combine agricultural production with solar energy generation.

The installation is part of a broader research initiative aimed at evaluating how solar infrastructure can further support fruit cultivation while contributing to renewable energy goals. Located on Agroscope’s site, this new demonstrator spans 4,000 m² and integrates apple, pear and apricot crops with a solar capacity of 242 kWp with an annual output of 300 MWh. It also serves as a testing ground for various crop protection solutions and light management systems, where all research is carried out in collaboration with Agroscope. Romande Energie acquired the installation, carried out all electrical works up to grid connection, and will operate it throughout the project’s lifetime. The electricity produced is sold to Denner, a leading distributor within the Migros Group.

With the expansion of its solutions to a greater variety of crops, and a project pipeline of over 500 MWp, mainly in Switzerland, France and Italy, Insolight is supporting the energy transition and actively helping growers protect their crops from climate change. The dual use of land approach strengthens both food security and renewable energy generation, offering a sustainable and efficient path for both sectors.

Multifunctional infrastructure

The system features a mix of fixed and mobile structures equipped with opaque and semi-transparent panels, tailored to the specific light requirements of fruit trees. It also includes climate protection systems – nets and tarpaulins that can be deployed manually or automatically – to shield crops from hail, rain, and frost.

The installation allows researchers to compare multiple configurations in terms of light transmission and crop protection, offering valuable insights into optimising orchard management under changing climate conditions.

An exemplary collaboration of private and public entities

This is the fourth agrivoltaic installation developed by the project partners since 2021, each testing different technologies and crop types. The Agroscope Conthey site now hosts four active systems, including three focused on berry crops (strawberries, raspberries and blueberries), positioning it as a national and international reference point for agrivoltaic research and experimentation.

The collaboration between public and private entities – Insolight, Romande Energie, Agroscope, and the canton of Valais – has enabled the creation of a robust platform for experimentation and data collection. The goal is to refine crop models and integrate them into Insolight’s digital management tool, Insol’insights, which supports decision-making for growers.

About Insolight

Founded in Lausanne (CH) in 2015 by Laurent Coulot (CEO), Mathieu Ackermann (CTO) and Florian Gerlich (Product Architect), Insolight is a provider of agrivoltaics solutions, commercialising the insolagrin system. Thanks to a unique infrastructure, insolagrin enables the simultaneous production of food and electricity on the same land. The system protects crops and controls the transmission of light to plants through dynamic shading, while capturing surplus light to generate electricity. It is adaptable to various crops.

Our team is on a mission to provide a solution with a global impact on both the energy and agriculture sectors. Insolight has launched a global partnership program, already joined by Migros, the SwissRe Foundation, EATON and Fruits Rouges & Co. It has also introduced the ‘energy positive fruits’ label to show consumers that it is possible to enjoy local and sustainable fruits.
For more information on Insolight, visit www.insolight.ch

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Planetary SA (“planetary” or the “company”), the leading mycoprotein producer in continental Europe, announced the integration of Libre Foods assets as its dedicated B2B food ingredient business unit, accelerating industrial-scale production of sustainable mycoprotein ingredients in Europe.

As its first milestone, ALDI Switzerland has selected naturally fermented mycoprotein by Libre, planetary’s dedicated B2B food business unit, for the new vegetarian MyVay Gourmet Filet, available in 242 stores across Switzerland since July 7th at recommended retail price parity with chicken filet, marking a breakthrough in affordable, sustainable protein alternatives.

Libre®, planetary’s B2B trademark, evokes a sense of lightness and simplicity while encouraging mindful indulgence. Staying true to Libre’s mission, the MyVay gourmet filet is indeed minimally processed, contains only 4 natural ingredients, and is high in protein, rich in fiber and low in saturated fats.

Simultaneously, planetary was selected as a finalist among 55 participating companies in the cheese alternative competition organized by LIDL Germany and ProVeg. This recognition further proves the versatility of mycoprotein as an ingredient not only in meat but also in dairy alternatives such as hard cheese, spread cheese and milk, for which planetary holds a global patent.

“With ALDI, amongst other customers, selecting our naturally fermented mycoprotein, we are proving sustainable proteins can match the price and experience of animal-based protein,” said David Brandes, CEO of planetary. “As the only viable industrial mycoprotein producer in continental Europe, we’re showing that fermentation at industrial scale can deliver affordable, scalable alternatives today.”

planetary’s industrial capacity expansion strategy places its proprietary fermentation platform, BioBlocksTM, at the center of future growth. Today, planetary is rolling out the licensing of the BioBlocks™ technology across the agricultural industry to enable the conversion of feedstock into higher value mycoprotein ingredients. In the future, this asset-light capacity scaling model will position BioBlocks™ as the backbone to unlock technology-leadership also beyond the food category.

planetary’s fermentation unit in Aarberg, Switzerland

To support this growth and industrial scale-up, (and in addition to its previous funding rounds), planetary secured a CHF 1.8 million grant from Innosuisse, Switzerland’s innovation agency, under its Startup Innovation Project (SIP) grant scheme. The funding will help to maximize production at the Aarberg, Switzerland site, further scaling Swiss-based manufacturing to meet growing demand for affordable, tasty and sustainable alternatives to meat.

As further validation of this approach and the distinctive strength of their technology, planetary was selected as one of only 10 global winners of the 2025 WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) Global Award from over 780 applicants across 95 countries. The annual award, which comes on the heels of our recent Solar Impulse Efficient Solution label, recognizes planetary’s breakthrough in scalable industrial fermentation and strategic use of intellectual property to address global sustainability challenges.

“The recognition from Innosuisse, Solar Impulse Foundation and WIPO is a testament of our technology leadership in industrial biotechnology and our readiness to scale. These milestones show that we’re building robust, real-world industrial processes that transform how sustainable proteins reach the market.” says Prof. Dr. Ian Marison, planetary co-founder & CSO.

planetary will continue working with retailers, food manufacturers, and partners to advance affordable, sustainable protein solutions and build the regenerative bioeconomy.

About planetary

planetary is the bioeconomy’s industrial backbone. Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, planetary operates the BioBlocks™ technology platform to enable large-scale fermentation production of food, materials, and other bio-based products. By turning main and low-value agricultural side-streams into high-value sustainable goods, planetary supports a circular, resource-efficient economy for the future.
BioBlocks™ and Libre® are registered trademarks of Planetary SA.

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