Aerial view of our automated greenhouse
The facility operates continuously with minimal human labor, marking a major milestone in the company’s effort to automate fresh food production near the point of consumption.
Canopii is built on a simple thesis: fresh food is not expensive to grow, it is expensive to transport, refrigerate, and lose. Transportation, cold storage, and distribution can account for roughly 30% of retail produce prices, while nearly half of leafy greens are lost before reaching consumers. By deploying autonomous greenhouses close to where food is consumed, Canopii aims to reduce reliance on long-haul refrigerated supply chains and operate outside of commodity channels.
The company’s platform combines proprietary robotics to autonomously seed, transplant, monitor, harvest, and maintain crops around the clock, fully automating all repetitive manual labor tasks including cleaning. Designed as a remotely managed fleet of modular facilities, the system can be deployed in communities near retailers, foodservice operators, and institutions. Canopii is also working on its computer vision and machine learning capabilities to autonomously steer crop growth parameters. Each greenhouse is projected to produce approximately 40,000 pounds of fresh produce annually.
“By shrinking industrial automation to a local scale, we’re offering an alternative to how fresh food reaches communities. The ultimate goal is to strengthen supply chains while building a more resilient, regionally relevant food system.” said David Ashton, Founder and CEO of Canopii.
Beyond staple leafy greens, Canopii uses its adaptable production model to supply more differentiated produces like organic packaged petite Asian greens and specialty herbs. By aligning crop selection with local demand, the company helps retailers and foodservice operators expand assortment, reduce sourcing volatility, and offer fresher, diverse produce that customers can literally see going in their community.
Unlike traditional greenhouse models that rely on large, centralized facilities, Canopii has developed an autonomous greenhouse system that combines full-cycle robotics with a smaller, cost-conscious design, unlocking scalable production without the capital intensity that has hindered much of the industry. The company expects its facilities to deliver a return on investment in approximately two to three years.
Canopii has remained capital efficient while operating its first autonomous greenhouse prototype. Over the past 3 years, Canopii has operated its prototype learning and debugging the system over multiple seasons. “The pace we are developing at is deliberate as I watched large amount of capital being spend by other CEA companies waiting for biology to catch up to spreadsheets. We have been fortunate with federal grants that allowed us to do so”, Ashton said. Their farm is now live and consistently producing crops for sale. Canopii is preparing to scale deployments and expand strategic partnerships in 2026. To accelerate this growth, the company is launching its seed financing round to support new installations and build out its autonomous greenhouse fleet.
Media note: A newly released video and additional visuals of the autonomous greenhouse in operation are available upon request.
For media inquiries, contact:
Ryan Tovey
rtovey@canopii.us
Ryan Tovey
Canopii Inc
+1 5103424365
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