€17.2m · Other round · Foodtech · Eindhoven, Netherlands
Eindhoven-based VitalFluid has raised €17.2m in Series A financing to expand its plasma-activated water crop-protection systems, according to Invest-NL. Invest-NL and Alder Tree Investments co-led the round, with Horticoop, BOM, Future Food Fund, Graduate Ventures, Innovation Industries, VDL and Goeie Grutten also participating. The company plans to deepen its UK rollout, enter the US and extend the product from strawberries to apples and grapes.
The package includes a €2.7m Innovation Credit from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency. Tech.eu classifies the event as Other, which maps to the approved Other round tag; the company and participating investors describe the financing as Series A.
Field evidence turns chemistry into a sales tool
VitalFluid makes its crop-protection liquid on site from water, air and electricity. Its system uses high-voltage plasma to create reactive compounds with a temporary antimicrobial effect, then applies the liquid through growers' existing spraying equipment. That integration point matters commercially: growers can add the treatment to an established workflow instead of rebuilding how a farm sprays crops.
The company has moved beyond small trials in one narrow use case. Graduate Ventures says VitalFluid has converted pilots into multi-year contracts and deployed across more than 100 hectares of UK strawberry production, where its treatment has almost entirely replaced synthetic fungicides used for the main fungal-control task. Those are investor-reported figures, but they give the financing a concrete job: reproduce a working commercial deployment across more growers, crops and markets.
That expansion still has a demanding proof burden. A treatment that works on strawberries must show efficacy, operating reliability and attractive unit economics in orchards and vineyards, while fitting different crop cycles and disease pressures. The system's compatibility with existing sprayers lowers one adoption barrier, but repeat sales will depend on evidence that growers can protect yield and simplify chemical-residue management without adding operational friction.
Regulation determines where scale can happen
The regulatory path differs by market. In a September interview with AgNavigator, CEO Erik Hertel said the technology is registered with the US Environmental Protection Agency as a pesticidal device, while VitalFluid is preparing a European regulatory dossier. The company also said it has achieved positive unit economics in the UK and is targeting profitability in 2028 or 2029.
That makes the UK deployments more than traction for a fundraising story: they are evidence that a farm-installed system can be sold and operated before broader European market access is secured. The round finances two related tests: whether VitalFluid can turn that beachhead into a repeatable US rollout, and whether additional crop data can support both regulatory approval and credible customer payback in Europe.
