Future Farming is our recipe
it’s made up of two ingredients:
(1) a technology that just works
(2) a business model able to unleash its true potential
Venice, 2015: we began our journey, under the radar, totally committed to nailing (1) the right piece of tech
vertical farms should be affordable and easy to operate, primarily using machines instead of a large workforce or expensive engineers. The machines should be reliable, practical, and not based on unrealistic science fiction concepts. The farms need to be large enough for commercial use, but not so massive that they require exorbitant upfront investments. Each square meter should yield exceptional productivity, and energy efficiency is crucial. The farms should be modular and easily expandable, without wasting time on extensive planning before the first harvest. Farms should go anywhere, without specific location requirements. They should function smoothly in extreme temperatures, both hot and cold. Additionally, they should be super clean and consistently meet the highest standards in lab checks. Of course, they also need to be environmentally friendly. Good luck!
keywords:
COST-EFFECTIVE
SIMPLE
AUTOMATED
RELIABLE
MODULAR
SCALABLE
QUICK
WEATHER-PROOF
PRODUCTIVE
EFFICIENT
SAFE
ECO-FRIENDLY
while many thought this was a moonshot,
someone eventually walked on the moon
ok, but how?
plants aren’t so demanding: give them water, light, nutrients and the right environmental conditions and they grow happily. No rocket science here. If you put together pieces that you can purchase from established vendors you end up with a farm that works. The only problem is that the business plan doesn't keep up. One day, back in 2015, we looked each other in the eyes saying: “if we want to nail this, we need to start from a blank sheet: from ZERO, literally”. And we did it
we took the long path, but the only possible one: building every single hardware component and coding every single line of software
we are obsessed with control. Each element is conceived to work seamlessly with the others, without functional overlaps, as we always strive for the simplest possible solution
we are not building one vertical farm. We created our proprietary Hardware and Software platform to build modular CEA environments with drastically improved CAPEX, OPEX and t to build metrics
in Renaissance fashion,
through the contamination of sciences
hello! I’m ROOT
Future Farming is a refined art with many variables playing a role: imagine riding a massive wave with grace and balance, without leaning too far forward or backward. This is something you master with experience, after making all the possible mistakes
we created ROOT, our cloud based AI, to learn from Farmers, Scientists and Engineers so to save you from those mistakes. She’s the heart and soul of the Future Farming Operating System
she’s 24/7 on duty caring of lifeforms and machines: she gathers data up to the point she can predict what’s going to happen. And she gets better and better over time
we don’t care about the biggest leafy greens vertical farm (a new one hits the news every two weeks)
we are laser-focused on building a diversified and geographically distributed Future Farming capacity seamlessly operated by ROOT
is Italy
the right place to start?
Italy is one the leading manufacturing economy in the world. Italian food is a Brand. Italian scientists and engineers are recognized. The sense of beauty is in our DNA. We think we are in the sweet spot when it comes to setting the Standard for Future Farming: it’s our take on a new Made in Italy to be exported globally
perfecting the technology took time, from 2015 to 2022, stubbornness and dealing with so many black swans. After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day. When it finally came time to go commercial,
(2) picking up the right business model was as crucial as building the technology foundations
Future Farming is horizontal!
after spending so much time in developing the technology, we thought using it just for leafy greens was a bit of overshooting. Moreover, building a B2C Brand in a commoditized category is not what we feel confident in executing. We are tech guys; better we stay focused on what we know
instead of going vertical and trying to reach the Consumer as many are doing (with pretty disappointing results), we take an horizontal approach: we focus on tech and develop applications we bring to market with B2B partners
our Partners are regional or industry Leaders: we just enable them with the tool to cement their leadership. They set the needs and deal with the commercial strategy, we take care of the nuts and bolts and operate the technology to meet them: it’s a win-win strategy to generate value over the long-term
there is more to grow
we look at CEA technologies from a broader perspective: combining them with genetics, synthetic biology, materials sciences and applying them creatively to a range of (apparently) distant industrial needs. It’s not just plants…
our Future Farming goes beyond agriculture; it draws inspiration from Nature which we see as a manufacturing platform. We say we Co-Design with Nature, with applications that can transform every aspect of daily life: food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, bio-materials, eco-remediation, the next big one
so, long story short,
ZERO is a deep-tech company
any given day, we strive to improve our tech and IP portfolio as we generate revenues by licensing them
we build tailored, turn-key,
B2B Future Farming Solutions spanning geographies and industries
“I think the biggest innovations of the 21st century will be at the intersection of biology and technology. A new era is beginning”
Steve Jobs