Every week we feature a new startup at Fundsup that forces a radical breakthrough. This time we chat with Adriano Desideri, CEO and co-founder of SOLHO.
Read the Dutch version on Emerce.
Adriano, What exactly are you doing?
I am one of the founders of SOLHO, a high-tech company based in Delft, The Netherlands. At SOLHO, we have developed the SPRHOUT, the most effective renewable solution to ensure the energy self-sufficiency of greenhouse farms.
Personally, I have a background in energy engineering, and I have always been passionate about sustainability issues. Our team has more than 30 years of experience in the thermal power industry. Together with Emiliano, Claire and Simone, we are on a mission to change the current paradigm of food growing.
Where do you see its main application?
We operate in the horticultural industry. Greenhouse manufacturers and developers and owners of greenhouse farms are our customers.
Our first product, the SPRHOUT, uses the sun as its only input to generate all the energy streams required to operate a greenhouse farm. The SPRHOUT harvests solar energy in the solar field and stores it. From the storage, we enter the SPRHOUT main unit where thermal energy is transformed into heating and cooling.
What is the impact of your business?
In 30 years, there will be 10bn people living on the planet, pushing the demand for food to rise tremendously. Agriculture will have to double food production to sustain the global population, exploiting fewer resources and causing lower environmental impact. Providing the growing population with healthy diets from sustainable food systems is a compelling challenge.
It is proven that greenhouse farms are able to sustainably intensify the production of fresh vegetables and fruits. They reduce the pressure on water and soil resources but require huge amounts of energy which is currently generated by burning fossil fuels.
At SOLHO, we are working to cut the environmental footprint of food production. The SPRHOUT lowers to zero the CO2 emissions of greenhouse farms, enabling sustainable food provision in Europe and worldwide.
Where do you stand right now?
In the past 3 years, we have validated the SPRHOUT technology in a real operational environment in France. We are currently working towards closing our first deal for a commercial greenhouse farm operating in Europe.
“We are on a mission to change the current paradigm of food growing.“
When are you planning to go to the market?
We expect to close our first commercial deal in the coming 9 months.
Who has invested in you and what kind of investors are you looking for?
To date, we have raised more than €600.000 through National and European grants and startup prices. These resources allowed us to develop our technology from an idea to testing and validation in an operational environment.
We are aiming for a seed round of €1.5M through equity and debt to bring the SPRHOUT to the market.
What would be the ideal investor match?
Our ideal investor has a clear overview of the horticultural industry. We aim to deploy our solution in Europe, the MENA region and worldwide, and we are looking for investors that can support us during this journey. Interested? Get in touch with us!
Best of luck with everything!
Thanks, check out our pitch deck in the Fundsup app: https://api.fundsup.co/go/Fkd7HH23y8