Viridius Technology

Viridius services allow farmers to grow economically viable crops near the final consumers, allowing the decentralization of fresh raspberry production and decreasing CO2 emissions and food waste.

Viridius prototype has been tested and validated by producers who have granted us Letters of Intent for more than 1,000 hectares of fresh raspberry production. From all the producers reached, representing more than 5000 hectares, all said that they need our solution to stay competitive on the market. Moreover, Viridius was selected as a finalist startup for the Food 4 Future’s FoodTech Innovation Awards, in May 2022, Europe’s largest congress on technological innovation in the food industry, held in Bilbao.

Today’s fresh raspberry producers face an unprecedented challenge: the scarcity of workers to perform the harvest. Alongside the severe social impacts associated with migratory fluxes motivated by seasonal work, the costs of harvesting alone represent more than 50% of the total production expense. This dependence on scarce and costly manual labor leads to the centralization of crops in low-income countries. Furthermore, this method generates food waste through bad handling upon picking and through the inability to adapt the supply chain according to real-time crop data.

Viridius developed a novel mechanism, based on robotics, computer vision, and AI/ML, that’s capable of autonomously harvesting raspberry for the fresh market. Viridius IP does not cause damage to the fruit or bush, and it resources 87% less manual labor while producing waste-free harvests. By decentralizing the production of raspberry, moving crops closer to consumers optimizes the supply chain and effectively reduces carbon dioxide emissions associated with its life cycle. At the same time, it acquires real-time crop data that can be used to predict diseases &yields, management, traceability.

Viridius’ autonomous systems, as well as hardware and software add-ons, will be rented and delivered as a harvesting service. A fee will be charged for any goods/services that are traded resorting to the data acquired, treated, and/or distributed by Viridius systems to the value chain. By partnering with key logistics and distribution players, it will be possible to reach more producers faster while using fewer resources. Viridius’ operations will start in Europe and it will expand to other regions. By the end of 2025, Viridius will be also present in the USA, Canada, and Australia.

EIT Food Seedbed Incubator;
(Currently in) Bioeconomy Ventures accelerator.