This Dutch Startup's Dry Seed Tech Just Raised $2.8M—No Water Needed

Jan de Vries · 2026-09-11

Imagine a seed treatment that doesn't need a single drop of water. That's exactly what Gravity Gardens, a Nijmegen-based AgTech startup, is bringing to market. They've just secured a $2.8 million Seed round to scale their chemical-free, dry seed activation technology for European arable and horticultural crops. The round combines equity investment with EFRO regional development funding and was backed by VP Capital, Brightlands Venture Partners (BVP), and Graduate Ventures, along with a group of private investors. This follows earlier support from StartLife and a Rabobank innovation loan, bringing the startup's total raised to over $3.2 million. ### Why This Matters for Farmers "The most impactful innovations are often the ones that improve the foundations of a system. Seeds are exactly that foundation," said Erica van Eeghen, Senior Manager Ventures at VP Capital. "Gravity Gardens has developed a technology that could make stronger crop establishment accessible to many more farmers while using fewer natural resources. That is what makes this investment so compelling." Founded in 2024 by Paulino Valdés (CEO) and Robin Le Vigouroux (CTO), Gravity Gardens' process uses no water, no chemicals, and leaves no coating on the seed. The technology was developed with support from the European Space Agency Business Incubation Centre (ESA BIC) Noordwijk. ### The Problem with Traditional Seed Priming Seed activation isn't new. For decades, seed companies have known that treating a seed lot properly leads to faster, more uniform emergence and better resilience in tough seedbeds. But conventional priming is wet—it involves hydrating the seed, holding it under controlled conditions, and then drying it again. That introduces handling constraints, capacity limits, and costs at every step. As a result, the economics have only ever worked for high-value vegetable and flower seeds. For the vast majority of crops by volume, seed activation has never been an option. ### A Dry Process Changes Everything By removing water from the equation, Gravity Gardens eliminates the need for a hydration stage and the drying step that follows. That drastically cuts costs and complexity. Where priming traditionally focuses on germination and uniformity, Gravity Gardens is targeting vigour—how quickly and strongly a crop establishes itself in the field. "Every seed company in Europe has a seed lot sitting in storage that germinates at grade A quality on the bench and then disappoints in the field," said Paulino Valdés, Founder and CEO. "Germination matters, but it is not the number that decides your season. Vigour is, and vigour is the first thing you lose as a lot ages or as the spring turns against you." He added: "Priming has been the industry's answer for forty years and it is a good answer, but it is a wet one, and the cost and complications that come with that are why it only ever made sense for a handful of high-value crops. What we have is dry, which takes those costs out. Cheap enough for field crops, and aimed at the thing that actually decides the season. That combination is what has not existed before." ### Proven in the Field Gravity Gardens reports that its technology has undergone seven external trials, including validation experiments conducted by Vertify. The company operates its own R&D and production facility in Nijmegen and runs active programmes with Vertify, HLB, Oost NL, and Foodvalley, through which it accessed an SME Innovation Voucher. "Germination is the most critical phase in plant development," the company noted. "Gravity Gardens' platform stimulates the plant's natural power, and its cost-competitive technology can be applied in a wide variety of crops." With this fresh funding, Gravity Gardens is poised to bring its dry seed activation to more farmers, making stronger crop establishment accessible while using fewer natural resources. It's a development that could reshape how we think about seed treatment—one dry seed at a time.