SAIA Agrobotics B.V.
"Automate your Greenhouse"
Ede, Netherlands greenhouse automation firm founded 2019 whose patented mobile plant system brings tomato and cucumber plants to AI scanning and harvest robots.
SAIA Agrobotics B.V. is a Dutch greenhouse automation company registered with the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce under number 75339269. Its office is at Nieuwe Kazernelaan 2-D42 in Ede. The company was formally founded in 2019, after first steps in 2017, by Dr. Ruud Barth (CEO) and Bart van Tuijl, who had both previously worked on harvesting robots for cucumber and sweet pepper at Wageningen University & Research.
SAIA's approach reverses the usual greenhouse robot concept: instead of driving mobile robots through crop rows, the plants are moved to the robot. Using a patented method, vegetable plants are grown short and vertical and hung from mobile gutters so they can be transported and viewed from all sides. The founders state they moved away from mobile robots because these would not reach their productivity goals. Plants are kept with a bare stem and receive tags for track and trace; one robot station can carry out several crop operations at once, such as removing leaves and fruit together. Target crops are tomato and cucumber, using standard varieties.
The system has three components: the mobile plant system; AI crop monitoring that identifies which truss is ready for harvest according to the grower's ripeness preferences and tracks potential yield; and a robotic harvester. The company targets a 20% yield increase and a 50% reduction in total greenhouse labour. Together with Dutch greenhouse industry partners, SAIA built what it calls the world's first automated greenhouse, in which plants are scanned and harvested weekly. Grower cooperative Growers United installed the first parts of the system at one of its locations.
SAIA has raised more than EUR 20 million across several rounds. Its latest round of about EUR 10 million (reported as a Series A in 2025) was led by Check24 Impact in collaboration with the European Innovation Council (EIC), with existing investors Navus Ventures and Oost NL; earlier investors include SHIFT Invest and Innovation Industries. The company has received co-funding from the European Union.
Primary type & automation activities this supplier delivers:
Mobile plant system
Patented system growing plants short and vertical on mobile gutters so they can be moved to robots.
A.I. crop monitoring
Scans plants to identify harvest-ready trusses per grower ripeness preference and track potential yield.
Robotic harvester
Stationary robotic harvesting station that picks fruit from plants brought to it by the mobile system.
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Contact SAIA Agrobotics B.V.
WEBSITE
https://www.saia-agrobotics.com/PHONE
+31 317 700 205HEADQUARTERS
Netherlands
Company Facts
Founded
2019
Primary Role
Manufacturer
Company Size
-
Primary Region
Europe
Annual Sales
-
Funding Stage
Early-Stage VC
Funding Total
-
Keywords
