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Eternal.Ag has raised €8 million in fresh funding to accelerate the development and deployment of its AI-powered autonomous harvesting robots, targeting one of the most pressing challenges in controlled-environment agriculture: labour shortages.
The start-up, headquartered in Cologne, Germany, attracted investment from Simon Capital, Oyster Bay Venture Capital, EquityPitcher Ventures and Backbone Ventures. The capital will be used to expand commercial operations across Europe, enhance product capabilities and extend automation to additional crop types.
Greenhouse farming is becoming increasingly critical to ensuring a stable, year-round supply of fresh produce, particularly as climate volatility, land constraints and pest pressures intensify. However, the sector faces a deepening labour crisis. In Europe, greenhouse labour availability has declined by as much as 30% since 2010, with further shortages in the coming decades, Eternal.Ag noted.
The company aims to address this gap through fully autonomous robots capable of performing repetitive and physically demanding harvesting tasks without human intervention. By enabling continuous operations, Eternal.Ag positions its technology as a solution for improving reliability, productivity, and cost efficiency in greenhouse environments.
The company’s flagship system, 'Harvester,' is designed specifically for tomato greenhouses and can operate up to 22 hours per day. Powered by artificial intelligence, the robot ensures consistent harvesting quality while adapting to variability in plant structures and growing conditions.
Eternal.Ag's co-founder and CEO, Renji John, said: “We train and validate our systems in virtual greenhouse environments, reducing development cycles from months to days. Once deployed, each robot continuously feeds operational data back into the system to improve performance over time."
The modular design of the platform also enables future expansion into broader greenhouse tasks, supporting a long-term roadmap toward fully autonomous operations.
Simon Capital's Niklas Leske said: "Labour shortages pose a structural risk to one of the most efficient and sustainable methods of food production. Robotics offers a scalable solution to ensure consistent, decentralised food production in the face of rising demand and climate pressure.”
Founded in 2025 by John and co-founder Sherry Kunjachan, Eternal.Ag has grown to a 26-person team with operations spanning Europe and India, including an office in Bengaluru. The latest funding round will support continued hiring, product development, and commercial rollouts across key European greenhouse markets.
The company envisions fully automated greenhouses by 2040, in which robotics systems handle all major operational tasks, minimising reliance on manual labour.
