Echo CCIF · April 2024

A revolution in agriculture: Techponics is transforming lettuce growing

In the agricultural sector, start-up Techponics offers an innovative solution to overcome the challenges of growing lettuce and leafy greens in open fields.

Towards tomorrow's agriculture

Technical challenges and innovative solutions

Open-field growing is weakened by three major problems: climate change, dependence on unskilled seasonal labour, and growing restrictions on the use of fertilisers and pesticides. Faced with these challenges, Techponics has developed a soilless growing system that stands out for its simplicity, efficiency, productivity and above all flexibility. The start-up has designed a device to automate growing in hydroponic basins, a system that considerably reduces the need for water and chemicals while maximising space and productivity.

The crucial role of technology

At the heart of Techponics' innovation is its automated crop management system, which adjusts plant spacing according to their growth. This ensures constant optimisation of space and resources, multiplying productivity tenfold compared with open fields. In addition, this modular, flexible system allows different varieties to be grown at the same time, which is unique in the industry today.

Overcoming obstacles: Techponics' quest

The main challenge was to design a system that was both more productive and less expensive than existing methods. To achieve this, Techponics embarked on a process of continuous innovation, based on technology watch and rigorous trials. The search for funds and new customers is under way: the start-up now aims to take its technology beyond Swiss borders. Next big milestone: marketing its system, with several active discussions with key industry players in Europe and the United States keen to discover the Fribourg start-up's technology.

A fruitful collaboration with Fri Up

On this adventure, collaboration with Fri Up, led by Yann Steulet, was decisive for the project's development. Fri Up offered support in the form of advice, expertise, networking and access to key resources.

Techponics was co-founded by Benoit de Combaud and Henri De Lalande on 1 September 2020. Louis Belloin joined them in June 2023 as co-founder.

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” – Leonardo da Vinci