€2.6m · Seed · Agritech · Nijmegen, Netherlands
Nijmegen-based Gravity Gardens has raised €2.6m in seed financing to scale its dry, chemical-free seed-activation technology. The round combines equity investment with EFRO regional development funding, with participation from VP Capital, Brightlands Venture Partners, Graduate Ventures and private investors. The split between equity and regional funding was not disclosed.
The company treats seed without adding water, chemicals or a coating, aiming to improve how quickly and strongly crops establish after planting. Gravity Gardens says its process has completed seven external trials, including validation work by Dutch research organisation Vertify. The financing will support industrial-scale equipment development with engineering group Demcon and larger trial programmes across more crops, with market readiness targeted during 2027.
A dry process changes the addressable crop economics
Conventional seed priming hydrates seed under controlled conditions and then dries it again. That handling can make the process worthwhile for high-value vegetable and flower seed but difficult to justify for field crops sold at much larger volumes. Gravity Gardens' commercial wager is that removing both the wet stage and the coating can lower processing complexity enough to bring activation to arable crops while preserving normal storage and handling.
The next challenge is turning trial performance into a repeatable production process. Seed companies need evidence that a treatment performs across crop varieties, seed lots and field conditions, while industrial equipment must deliver consistent throughput without damaging the seed. Larger external trials therefore serve two purposes: they broaden the agronomic evidence and give prospective customers data for qualification decisions.
The €2.6m mix of private capital and EFRO support matches that development path. Equipment construction and multi-season field testing create costs before broad commercial sales are possible, while the 2027 readiness target leaves a defined milestone for investors and customers. The important proof will be whether industrial-scale treatment preserves the field-vigour gains observed in trials at a cost that works for higher-volume crops.
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