Gardin

Gardin is an Oxford-based agtech company founded in 2019 by Dr. Sumanta Talukdar with the conviction that modern food production was optimising everything — soil, air, humidity, lighting — except the plant itself. By developing a proprietary optical photosynthesis sensor and AI platform, Gardin has created what it describes as a real-time 'pulse' for the plant: a system that directly measures chlorophyll fluorescence to assess the efficiency of photosynthesis at scale, providing growers with early and actionable insight into crop health before stress becomes visible. This direct measurement of the plant's physiological response represents a fundamental shift from climate control toward what Gardin calls 'crop control'.

Gardin's core hardware — the Gardin Pulse sensor — is designed for autonomous, scalable deployment across polytunnels, greenhouses, and vertical farms. Once installed, it generates a continuous stream of photosynthesis data that feeds into a cloud-based AI platform, enabling growers to optimise lighting, irrigation, and nutrient strategies in real time. The platform has been deployed commercially across more than 20 crop species, from algae to tomatoes, in growing environments across Spain, Morocco, the Netherlands, and Canada. Clients have reported up to a 10x return on investment, yield increases of up to 15%, energy savings of 20–30%, and early stress detection up to four weeks ahead of visual observation.

Gardin has raised a total of $16.5 million in funding, including a $4.5 million Seed 2 round in 2025 led by Navus Ventures, with participation from Oxford Innovation Finance, LDV Capital, MMC Ventures, Seedcamp, and Alchimia Investments. The company has strategic partnerships with Priva — integrating Gardin's photosynthesis insights into Priva One, a leading horticultural automation system — as well as partnerships with Ridder and Agriculture Investments Limited. Gardin has been shortlisted for The Europas Awards and the FT Tech Champions, and has been selected for multiple industry competitions including MuGrow at TU Delft.