German startup eternal.ag launches fully autonomous harvesting robot to tackle greenhouse labor shortage
- Agritech startup eternal.ag announces the launch of Harvester, a fully autonomous robot that specializes in tomato harvesting for greenhouses.
- Eternal.ag’s robots operate around the clock and are supported by AI to ensure harvesting consistency and quality.
- The company recently raised €8 million to accelerate its European expansion and extend the technology’s capabilities to new crop types.
Greenhouses are increasingly essential for securing the year-round supply of fresh fruit and vegetables, being far more resilient to seasonal weather, climate change, land shortages and pests than outdoor farming. However, greenhouse labor availability is falling rapidly—in Europe by as much as 30% since 2010—and forecasts say this trend will continue, leaving growers with structural staffing shortages.
Filling the Labor Gap with Automation
By automating physically demanding harvesting work, eternal.ag’s robots enable greenhouses to operate reliably and continuously, even when labor is unavailable or inconsistent. By 2040, the company envisions fully automated greenhouse operations powered by robotics, requiring no manual operations.
Eternal.ag’s Harvester operates up to 22 hours a day consistently and works as part of an intelligent AI-powered system to ensure quality of produce and cut. Built as a modular system, the platform is designed to expand over time with additional robotic functions to better serve broader greenhouse operations.
“Autonomous robots only work if they can handle real-world variability between plants, layouts and daily operations,” said Renji John, CEO and co-founder of eternal.ag. “We develop and validate our robots using simulation-first development. That allows us to train, test and fail safely in virtual greenhouses — cutting iteration cycles from months to days. Once deployed, every robot action feeds data back into the system, which is designed to learn, improve and scale.”
€8 Million to Accelerate Expansion
Eternal.ag has raised €8 million in venture capital funding to support the development of Harvester and a number of new products, expand its commercial deployments across Europe, and extend to additional crop types. The funding comes from investors Simon Capital, Oyster Bay Venture Capital, EquityPitcher Ventures and Backbone Ventures.
Wilco Schoonderbeek, former Director of Investments at the horticulture investor Horticoop and Board Observer for eternal.ag, contributed his expertise in horticulture investment and strategy. He said:
“When labor is uncertain, everything else becomes uncertain. Greenhouse operations need resilience, not temporary fixes or pushing problems into the future. Automation solves the biggest bottleneck that growers are facing. The robot shows up where the work needs to happen and just does it. Growers finally have predictable operations.”
About eternal.ag
Founded in 2025 by Renji John and Sherry Kunjachan, eternal.ag has built a team of 26 employees working across Europe and India, with headquarters in Cologne and an office in Bengaluru. The company’s mission is to eliminate the single biggest risk in greenhouse operations: labor uncertainty. Our robots handle the repetitive, physically demanding crop work with consistent precision, enabling growers to run predictable operations and deliver uniform harvest quality at scale.
For more information or to learn more about the company's work, visit eternal.ag.