ROBERTET AND INTERSTELLAR LAB JOIN FORCES TO REVOLUTIONIZE THE SUSTAINABLE CULTIVATION OF AROMATIC PLANTS
Robertet pursues its strategy of innovation in natural products with the acquisition of its first BioPod, an autonomous greenhouse developed by Interstellar Lab, which accelerates plant growth and optimizes plant composition, while limiting the environmental impact of soil-less cultivation.
This initiative is aimed at furthering agronomic research for the perfume, aroma and wellness sectors.
The BioPod, a sustainable cultivation tool
Robertet, world leader in natural raw materials, is the first industrial player in fragrances and flavors to acquire a BioPod. This first contract with the biotech startup Interstellar Lab, a visionary player in biofarming, will enable Robertet to accelerate its knowledge of living organisms, while reducing its environmental footprint for precision agriculture.
The BioPod is a sustainable cultivation tool that anticipates the challenges of sourcing and the environmental impact of producing natural ingredients. It’s a deployable greenhouse measuring 11m long, 5m wide and 6m high, which can be installed without a foundation and offers up to 100m2 of highly-controlled growing space. This autonomous cocoon, a terrestrial adaptation of a system originally developed for NASA, operates in a semi-closed circuit, optimizing the water cycle and capturing ambient CO2. Its transparent membrane captures sunlight and reduces the energy consumption of artificial light. Equipped with sensors and its own artificial intelligence, the BioPod recreates climates autonomously, enabling the production of high-value-added plants and natural ingredients in a sustainable and replicable way. Thanks to cutting-edge technologies and automated control using an algorithmic approach, the BioPod maintains the ideal conditions for plant growth and molecular composition, while significantly reducing water consumption, cultivation surface area and energy consumption. This investment is in addition to the 14 research and creation centers dedicated to exploring the natural world in order to offer natural products and solutions to the Robertet Group’s customers.
The arrival of this BioPod in Grasse illustrates Robertet’s innovation strategy: relying on cutting-edge technologies to offer our customers the best natural products for a more sustainable industry. We’re doing this with a recognized pioneer in biofarming.
Jérôme Bruhat, Robertet CEO
About Interstellar Lab
Interstellar Lab is a French-American bio-technology startup founded in 2018 that develops, builds and operates biofarming solutions to optimize plant cultivation and molecular composition on Earth and also in space. The highly controlled environment modules developed by Interstellar Lab enable sustainable, high-precision cultivation of high-value-added plants used by the Natural Ingredients, Cosmetics, Pharmaceuticals and Food industries. The company has also developed strategic partnerships with NASA and ESA for plant cultivation and research in microgravity. Based in Ivry-sur-Seine (France) and at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida (USA), Interstellar Lab today has over 30 employees from SpaceX, Airbus, Trimble and Agricool, and is backed by institutional investors including BPI and France 2030.