Food security
Productivity is growing at roughly 0.45% a year, far short of the 1.91% needed to meet demand from a population approaching 10 billion by 2050.
Intelligent crop inspection
Turning observation into insight, and insight into action
Aardvest is building an intelligent inspection system that monitors crop growth continuously, detects risks before they spread, and tells growers what to do about it.
Bed 03 · Room 2
Observing
Detected 0
Median cap 0 mm
Flagged 0
Hour 00
The problem
Produce more food, with fewer workers, and less waste
Agriculture is being asked to do all three at once. The technology to help already exists. What’s missing is the integrated system that connects technology to the crop.
Labour crisis
Over a quarter of farmers across OECD countries are above 55, with few new entrants. The agricultural workforce is shrinking by around 2% every year.
Global freshwater
Agriculture draws about 70% of the world's freshwater. Around 13% of what it grows is then lost between harvest and retail, so a large share of that water is spent on food nobody eats.
Sources: OECD, FAO, UN, USDA ERS, World Bank (2021–2025)
Inside the growing room
Every bed, every hour, without anyone walking the aisles
Camera modules watch each tier while sensors track the room around them. Select a bed to see what the system is reporting.
Swipe the scene to see the full room · Illustration of the system in a growing room — not live farm data
Our point of entry
Why we start with mushrooms
Mushrooms are just our starting point. The system we build here is designed to move across crops as the technology matures.
- A controlled environmentTemperature, humidity, CO₂ and lighting are already managed, so visual conditions stay stable and predictable.
- Visually distinct growth stagesPinning, fruiting body development and harvest readiness each look different, which suits computer vision well.
- Short, repeating cyclesFive to six week production cycles let us iterate and improve the models quickly.
- Camera modules, indoorsNo weather, no field navigation, no lighting inconsistency to design around.
Stage 01 of 05
Colonisation
Mycelium spreads through the casing soil before anything is visible above the surface. Tracking how fast and how evenly it covers the bed is the earliest signal of how the flush will go.
The system
From camera to decision
An autonomous system that monitors growth continuously, detects risks early, and turns what it sees into action the grower can take. Select a stage to look closer.
01
Cameras and sensors
Fixed camera modules above each bed capture images on a set interval, with air and compost temperature, humidity and CO₂ recorded alongside them.
The vision
A future where autonomous systems empower growers to produce more, waste less, and feed a growing world.
Get in touch
We would like to hear from you
Whether you grow mushrooms, build technology for crops, or want to back what we are doing, send us a note and we will come back to you.
- info@aardvest.com
- KvK number
- 42171733