We are raising $30K–50K to put Version 1 in front of the farmers who need it first
Roughly ₩40–67 million. A deliberately small round, sized to prove the system on real Korean farms rather than to scale before it is earned.
What this round funds
Prototype fleet
Building the two costed-out harvesting units, then hardening them enough to run in a working greenhouse rather than on a bench.
Pilot deployments
Installing the scanning platform in a small number of working Korean greenhouses, where the real data and the real proof come from.
Platform development
Taking the scanning software from prototype to something farms can rely on through a full season.
Intellectual property
Patent filing and a freedom to operate review, before commercial deployment rather than after.
Because Biocenza builds on commodity hardware rather than industrial equipment, this amount goes considerably further than it would for a venture buying its way to a prototype. The team plans to raise again after pilot data, not before, with Korea's public funding routes, including the TIPS program, open at that stage.
The case in four points
- The global harvesting robot market is projected to surpass $4.8 billion by 2032.
- A proven Korean government demand signal, not just a hypothesis, the Smart Farm Promotion Act and an estimated $1.5B in funding.
- A cost and production advantage over conventional greenhouses that widens over time.
- A planned, formal patent registration for the integrated detection and harvesting system, real legal protection, not just a promise.
A direct comparison against the status quo
| Metric | Regular greenhouse | Biocenza |
|---|---|---|
| Crop yield | Baseline | Higher, precision harvesting |
| Fertilizer & pesticide use | Chemical dependent | Ozone-safe alternative |
| Harvest labor | Manual | Automated, robotic |
| Environmental impact | Ozone depleting | Ozone protective |
| Estimated cost | Higher over time | Lower over time |
Secondary research benchmarks, to be replaced with real vendor quotes
| Cost category | Estimated range | Applies to |
|---|---|---|
| Biocenza harvesting unit, per unit (target) | Target build cost in the low thousandsvs. $120,000–$250,000 for industrial units built for large scale greenhouses | Robotics phase |
| Camera & sensor hardware, per greenhouse | Standard off the shelf camerasNo proprietary hardware required, following the approach comparable monitoring platforms already use | Version 1, at launch |
| Greenhouse baseline operating cost | $3–4 per sq ft per seasonLabor, energy, and inputs | Version 1, ongoing |
| Nitrification inhibitor fertilizer premium | 8–10 cents per lb of nitrogenModest premium over standard fertilizer | Version 1, ongoing |
| Patent filing & prosecution in Korea | $2,000–3,500 in attorney feesPlus modest official filing fees | Version 1 |
| Fish farming RAS infrastructure, per system | $30,000 for a small systemUp to several million for industrial scale | Version 3 |
These are secondary research benchmarks, not vendor quotes. Actual spend will be tracked against them at each roadmap milestone.
Profit improves from two directions at once
The farmer earns more
- Recovers crop that used to be lost to harvest timing, out of the 12 to 39 percent that studies of commercial strawberry farms report going unpicked or picked wrong.
- Spends less on fertilizer applied by habit, and catches disease before it costs a whole greenhouse.
- Spends fewer hours walking rows, a cost farmers never put a number on.
Biocenza earns steadily
- Subscription revenue from the scanning platform, paid per greenhouse every season rather than once.
- Robot as a service revenue once the harvesting unit is deployed, on the same recurring basis.
- Dairy health service revenue from Version 2, and biogas or waste-processing revenue once the circular loop is running.
Why this is hard to copy
No harmful fertilizers or pesticides
Unlike regular and local greenhouses that depend on chemical inputs and manual monitoring.
Higher quality produce
From a system that stays in balance with its environment.
Built for the farms incumbents cannot reach
Existing harvesting robots are priced for industrial scale greenhouses, far beyond what a small Korean family farm can justify. Biocenza runs on commodity Raspberry Pi compute and a local server, keeping cost low enough for the farms that make up most of Korea's greenhouse sector.
A durable moat
Proprietary AI detection models and accumulating greenhouse sensor data create a technical lead that is hard to copy. A planned patent filing targets the integrated system, how oxygen exchange monitoring informs harvest timing and fertilizer dosing together. A formal patent and freedom to operate review is planned before commercial deployment.
The full Business Model Canvas
Customer Segments
Korea's greenhouse farm owners, agricultural cooperatives, and commercial growers, starting with crop greenhouses and expanding to dairy farms in Version 2.
Value Propositions
Real time AI monitoring and robotic harvesting that removes manual guesswork, a nitrification inhibitor fertilizer that protects the ozone layer, lower labor and input costs alongside higher, more predictable yields, and a circular resource loop that turns dairy and fish waste into biogas energy and fertilizer.
Channels
Direct sales and on site demonstrations to greenhouse farms, distribution through Korea's national agricultural cooperative network such as NongHyup, enrollment through Smart Farm Promotion Act support programs, and agricultural technology trade shows.
Customer Relationships
Hands on onboarding and installation support, an ongoing monitoring and optimization service, dedicated account support for cooperative partners, and farmer training on the new system.
Revenue Streams
At launch, a recurring subscription for AI scanning, monitoring, data, and optimization, priced per greenhouse. From the robotics phase onward, a robot as a service model. Additional recurring revenue from dairy health services and, later, biogas or waste-processing.
Key Resources
Proprietary AI detection models, robotic harvesting hardware, a growing greenhouse sensor data set, the founding team's AI and Big Data expertise, and the planned patent.
Key Activities
R&D on detection and harvesting models, hardware assembly and installation, platform development and maintenance, customer onboarding and support, continuous data collection, and processing organic waste through anaerobic digestion.
Key Partnerships
Korea's Smart Farm Promotion Act program and related government agencies, agricultural cooperatives such as NongHyup, suppliers of nitrification inhibitor fertilizer, and hardware component manufacturers.
Cost Structure
R&D and software costs, hardware components and robotic arm manufacturing, installation and field support staffing, patent filing, and sales and partnership development.
Sources & notes (23 citations)
This is secondary research from public sources, gathered to validate the plan, not a substitute for primary due diligence. A formal patent and freedom to operate opinion, plus country-specific regulatory advice for Japan, India, and China, is recommended before final investment.
- [1] Chemistry World, nitrous oxide from nitrogen fertilizer confirmed as the leading ozone-depleting substance in the atmosphere.
- [2] University of Minnesota Extension, and Li et al., Plants journal (2023), nitrification inhibitor cost premium, nitrous oxide reduction, and yield increase data.
- [3] ensun and HortiDaily, Organifarms and its BERRY strawberry harvesting robot.
- [4] Startus Insights, Four Growers tomato harvesting robots.
- [5] Astute Analytica, Harvesting Robot Market report, Root AI, MetoMotion, Iron Ox, and the global harvesting robot market size projection.
- [6] HortiDaily and the EBZ Group investment announcement, Organifarms' international expansion investment.
- [7] Ken Research, South Korea Smart Farming Market report, Korea's Smart Farm Promotion Act and government funding level.
- [8] OECD Agricultural Policy Monitoring and Evaluation 2025, and Korea's Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, First Master Plan for Smart Farming Industry, 2025–2029.
- [9] HortiDaily and Produce Grower, unit pricing for Organifarms and Agrobot harvesting robots.
- [10] Delbridge et al., Journal of Food Distribution Research, in-field strawberry loss study.
- [11] Just Style, Pharm Robotics and its SureShot automated dairy health system.
- [12] Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and Asia Pathways, ADBI, the 2024 Smart Agriculture Promotion Act.
- [13] JH Agriinfra, India's National Horticultural Board subsidy program and foreign investment rules.
- [14] Fortune Business Insights and Dimension Market Research, Asia Pacific and Europe smart greenhouse market share.
- [15] ScienceDirect, and Aquaculture in South Korea (Wikipedia), olive flounder, Korean rockfish, and mullet as Korea's main farmed fish species.
- [16] BGR, and a critical review of greenhouse technology in China (MDPI Applied Sciences), China's greenhouse area and technology status.
- [17] Ohio State University Extension, greenhouse baseline operating cost per square foot.
- [18] Lexology, In brief, patent prosecution in South Korea, domestic filing and attorney fee costs.
- [19] YUTANK and other recirculating aquaculture system cost guides, 2026, RAS system cost range, including drum filtration equipment.
- [20] US EPA AgSTAR, and Vanguard Renewables, anaerobic digestion of dairy manure into biogas and digestate fertilizer, solids reused as animal bedding.
- [21] Innovation News Network, and RASTECH Magazine, recirculating aquaculture fish sludge processed by anaerobic digestion into biogas and fertilizer.
- [22] A review on recycling agricultural waste for livestock nutrition (PMC), crop residue and food waste byproducts reducing feed costs 10–30%.
- [23] The Packer and Fermata, the Croptimus AI greenhouse scanning platform. Sigrow and Farmonaut company materials.