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iUNU acquires Artemis to offer complete AI-driven solution for indoor ag

September 27, 2021  By Greenhouse Canada


iUNU has acquired Artemis, joining forces to provide an extensive autonomous solution to indoor agricultural operations.

Agtech company, iUNU has announced its acquisition of Artemis, a cultivation management platform developer.

Based in Seattle, Wash., iUNU is known for their Luna system, which combines software with a variety of high-definition cameras — both fixed and mobile — and environmental sensors to keep track of the minutiae of plant growth and health in indoor ag settings.

Artemis’s CMP allows growers to track all their operations and production data in one place, integrating with existing systems (climate control, accounting, ERP), offering a bird’s eye view of productivity and compliance. More than 1,000 users are active on Artemis, says the press release.

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Both companies have been active in offering technologies for the indoor agriculture industry across North America. Combined, they aim to accelerate their market share and expand the market.

According to the press release, both iUNU and Artemis work with some well-known customers in the industry, including CubicFarm Systems Corp. of B.C., Hydroserre in Quebec, and North Shore Greenhouses, Inc. in California.

Adam Greenberg of iUNU

“Artemis is a stellar company with a strong team and product that is deployed across many crop varieties. We’re far better together than apart, and I’m excited to join efforts. We have long respected the work Artemis has done to streamline the greenhouse operations, the value they bring growers with their software, and the work they’ve done leading the market to elevate this industry,” said Adam Greenberg, founder and CEO of iUNU.

The merger of iUNU and Artemis is said to present the first opportunity for growers to access a completely AI-driven platform to manage all operations – including inventory tracking, production planning, yield forecasting, pest and disease management, food safety, and labour tracking. In short, Artemis will become the user-facing component while iUNU powers the data collection and AI, explains Allison Kopf, founder and CEO of Artemis. “Together the integrated products will focus on driving a truly autonomous greenhouse.”

This acquisition will be iUNU’s second in recent months, as they acquired CropWalk, a full-service integrated pest management agronomist solution. iUNU says they saw a 12-times, year-over-year growth this year. Together, Artemis and iUNU work with growers across 16 million square feet, with additional expansion opportunities in excess of 40 million square feet. The companies share a knowledge base of over 2 billion square feet of imagery

Both iUNU and Artemis have amassed datasets that help establish the risk profile of an operation, underwrite risk with more credibility, and finance the expansion of the industry by building more CEA operations to meet the market demand. Artemis has already helped lenders connect and finance more than $150 million in expansion capital for its customers, and as part of this acquisition will continue to grow this business.

Allison Kopf of Artemis will be joining iUNU’s executive team.

“iUNU has done an incredible job building advanced analytics solutions for the most critical element of your operation – the plants. Artemis has done the same for the people and operations. By combining plants, people, and operations, we’re poised to scale the technologies underpinning the fastest growing segment of the agriculture industry – controlled environment agriculture,” said Kopf.

For customers in Canada, Kopf says this is an incredibly exciting partnership. “iUNU has a satellite office in Canada and Artemis’ Canadian team members will add additional presence for our company in the area. We’ll also continue focusing on expanding to more customers across Canada, adding to our already strong customer base.”

As part of the acquisition, Artemis’ founder and CEO, Allison Kopf will be joining iUNU’s executive team as Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Data Products.


Source: Artemis & iUNU press release


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