Once upon a time on Planet Earth
A businessman, a biologist, and a rocket scientist walk into a bar. This either sounds like the beginning of a stupendous joke, or a most sustainable business opportunity. We are Oliver, Daniel and Ignaty, the team behind Arctic Farming. On this page you can learn more about our journey, and our plans to change how food is produced on planet Earth, and beyond 🚀.
OUR STORY – SO FAR:
2018
Our journey started…
…at the Aalto University Otaniemi campus where Oliver was finishing his Master’s studies in sustainable business. While taking a course on innovation management, Oliver asked for help from his brother Daniel to conceptualise a business based on indoor farming. The question was – could we grow fresh food indoors right next to the end-users using small-scale vertical farming?
After successfully pitching the idea at the end of the course, Oliver, together with his brother and two other students decided to take things forward, building the first rough hardware prototypes from scrap at the university premises.
2019
Everybody has to start somewhere…
….even if that somewhere is not pretty. After validating the potential of indoor vertical farming, our founding team started testing existing market solutions to find the optimal solution for hyperlocal indoor farming. After debating small-scale vertical farms inside shipping containers, and industrial farms inside old warehouses, the team chose to design a small-scale solution that could be used by anyone, anywhere.
During this time, Oliver and Daniel also crossed paths with a former top chef and a successful foodtech investor, who became convinced of the team’s potential. Thus, Arctic Farming was born in December 2019.
2020
Lock-downs and product concepts
With the whole world on lock-down due to the Covid pandemic, we spent our time testing existing small-scale indoor farming products, researching their pros and cons, all the while trying to come up with our own novel approach that combines the best of all worlds.
From this research, the idea of a fridge-sized farming appliance came to mind. Perhaps indoor farming could be taken into the mainstream by retrofitting the technology into a familiar form factor that anyone can use?
2021
Research and Development (lots of it)
While developing our own solution, our residential scientist Daniel was kept busy researching the types of plants that would be best suited for small-scale indoor farming. Growing plants with hydroponics is easy – getting them to grow consistently with high quality and a great taste is the challenge.
With most of the world still on lock-down, most of the year went researching a wide range of plants and their interplay with technology. Not only did we harvest a large range of herbs and salads, but also the first soy beans ever grown in a vertically inclined surface!
2022
Piloting and gathering feedback
With a significant amount of time spent researching and developing in a laboratory environment, it was time to get our invention to the markets for testing. The goal – gather as much data and feedback as possible from real users in actual customer settings.
2023
Turning feedback into a standard for indoor farming appliances
After collecting more than a year’s worth of feedback and data from an expanding group of pilot customers around Finland (including one of the best luxury hotels in the country), HERBY® was born. With an optimised footprint and with a market leading user experience, HERBY® will surely set the standard for how indoor farming appliances are produced in the future.
In addition to launching HERBY®, Arctic Farming was also selected to participate in the renowned European Space Agency Business Incubator.
