To prevent crops from going to waste, the Dutch bankrupt greenhouse company Eden Tech was allowed to continue operating for a few more months. Now the trustee investigates a relaunch.
For several years, the Eden Tech team has been working on their technology to grow crops in the most efficient way possible, minimizing the use of water and nutrients. "Dosing water and nutrients in such a way that nothing is lost and the optimum result is achieved," they explained earlier. The initiators worked on an installation to grow crops themselves in an ecologically responsible way. That cultivation process was automated, an app was developed that could remotely control the administration of food, water and the provision of the right equipment.
Yet this summer Eden Advanced Technologies was declared bankrupt. On 9 July, bankruptcy was declared. The start-up, which had been developing a new way of vertical growing since 2018, filed for bankruptcy itself. Currently, the trustee is investigating a restart of the company from Enschede.
The first bankruptcy report by the trustee shows that during the development process the entrepreneurs came to the conclusion that under the current market conditions it was not possible to market the concept they had devised in a financially attractive way. In local newspaper Tubantia, trustee Tom Brouwer states that the entrepreneurs 'did not have their strategy entirely clear'.
In the middle of last year, a compact greenhouse was presented that should be able to be set up and used easily anywhere to grow vegetables. Eden Advanced Technologies hopes to use the pop-up greenhouse to target restaurants, among other things.
Relaunch
Shortly after the bankruptcy ruling, the trustee entered into talks with the owner of the premises where the start-up was based. The owner was willing to cooperate in a restart and/or sale of the company and to give the entrepreneurs two more months to continue. That way, the crops will not perish, writes the trustee in the report.
The main creditors of the start-up are investors. The company also received half a ton from the Dutch Student Investment Fund.
Sources: Central Insolvency Register, Tubantia