DENSO Corporation confirmed it has acquired Axia Vegetable Seeds, the vegetable seed breeding company headquartered in the Netherlands, focused on developing high-quality tomato seeds for greenhouses globally.
"The acquisition marks a step forward in DENSO's strategic expansion into the AgriTech sector", the company shares. "In recent years, food shortages caused by climate change and population growth have become global challenges, and companies have recognized the growing need to develop stable agricultural production capable of reliably producing and supplying food to meet demand. By integrating its industrial technologies developed for automobiles with the specialized cultivation expertise of various partners, DENSO accelerates the development of innovative cultivation methods, such as data-driven cultivation."
New value
"We are delighted to welcome Axia Vegetable Seeds, with its outstanding development capabilities and know-how in the seed industry, as a member of the DENSO Group. By integrating the technologies and expertise of both the DENSO Group and Axia, we will create new value and realize our vision of providing safe and delicious food anytime, anywhere, and for everyone", commented Food Value Chain Business Development Division Executive Officer Yasushi Mukai.
Axia Vegetable Seeds CEO & COO Alois and Sandor van Vliet commented: "Joining DENSO allows us to accelerate our mission of delivering the best quality tomato seeds globally, boosted by exciting opportunities with controlled environment automation and AI technologies. Together with our talented employees and partners, we continue to bring transformative innovations to growers worldwide – making agriculture smarter, more sustainable, and more productive. Our mission is to become the world leader in tomato seeds for the greenhouse industry. We are grateful for our shareholders such as Temasek, Kleiner Perkins, WP Global Partners, and other shareholders."
Axia Vegetable Seeds
Founded in the heart of the Dutch greenhouse industry, Axia Vegetable Seeds develops a wide range of high-performing tomato seeds known for their high disease resistance, good taste, quality, and high yield, and distributes them on a global scale. The company was founded in 2010 by brothers Alois and Xandor van Vliet. The brothers are well-known in the breeding sector: they managed Western Seeds, founded by their father, which was acquired by Monsanto in 2007.
Investments were made in Axia via the investment company Voloagri, alongside other open field breeding companies. In 2016, Singaporean Temasek acquired almost 50% of the shares in Voloagri, and therefore in Axia. Earlier this year, Axia sold its breeding activities for open ground to Indian Namdhari Seeds. This included brands such as US Agriseeds, Catalyst Seeds, New World Seeds, and California Hybrids.
Rumours about the sale of Axia Vegetable Seeds by Temasek were in the news a few weeks ago, and the takeover has now been confirmed. Moreover, Denso is not only acquiring Temasek's share, but is also becoming the 100 percent owner. No comments were made on the rumoured acquisition price of 500 million dollars. According to the audited financial report of 2024, Axia noted a revenue of 48 million in 2024, and had 132 employees.
DENSO is a global automotive parts manufacturer that provides advanced automotive technologies, systems, and products. DENSO is expanding the scope of its value offerings to include factory automation, food distribution, agriculture (AgriTech), and more.
"Among these, in order to deliver safe and reliable food, essential to people's daily lives, DENSO positions agriculture as an important business domain. Through automated harvesting using robots equipped with sensing technologies and through digital-based cultivation environment control, DENSO is working toward the industrialization of farms", the company says. DENSO has expanded over the last years into the horticultural industry by acquiring a minority stake in Dutch greenhouse builder Certhon in 2020, followed by a full acquisition in 2023. In addition to being an owner, the company has also proven to be an important partner for Certhon in the development of their Artemy harvesting robot.
Denso and Axia
"Moving forward, DENSO and Axia Vegetable Seeds will collaborate to combine industrial technology with seed development to create high-quality seeds suitable for automated farming approaches and climate adaptation. Additionally, by leveraging DENSO's image recognition and AI technologies, the two companies aim to shorten the development period of new seeds and bring higher value-added seeds to market more quickly", the companies share. "Through these initiatives, the companies will build cultivation solutions that enable stable and planned production from seed to harvest, meet producers' diverse needs, help workforces to prioritize high-value work, and aim to achieve sustainable agriculture worldwide."