Horticoop invests in CE-Line

CE-Line facilitates a ‘plug and play’ measuring system that accurately measures the composition of nutrients in the irrigation and drain water several times a day by independently taking samples from the various water flows. This uses technology that is applied in laboratories to measure macro and micronutrients. CE-Line’s real-time analyzes make it easy for growers to optimally dose nutrients. This way they can regulate the ideal nutrient composition in all climatic conditions and for each growth phase, if desired with automatic dosing systems to achieve autonomous cultivation. The CE-Line system cleans and calibrates itself, so only the monthly change of reagent liquids requires human action.

Simon Meijer, CEO of CE-Line: “We are making the transition from a research company to a production company and are happy to welcome Horticoop and Yield Lab Europe as investors. They recognize our multidisciplinary setting and have experience with companies in this phase of scaling up, where new steps are constantly being taken. This flexibility, of course based on knowledge of the market, makes the collaboration very useful.”

Wilco Schoonderbeek, Director Investments of Horticoop: “This CE-Line solution for continuous and fully automated testing and management of water and nutrients gives growers more control over the growth of their crops. Saving water and nutrients, and the possibility of making water systems closed, are in line with Horticoop’s ambition to contribute to a sustainable and future-proof horticultural sector.”

With CE-Line, the quality of water in closed systems can be measured autonomously, making manual sampling and testing by a lab redundant.

– DAAN WILMS VAN KERSBERGEN, INVESTMENT DIRECTOR AT YIELD LAB EUROPE

Daan Wilms van Kersbergen, Investment Director at Yield Lab Europe: “With CE-Line, the quality of water in closed systems can be measured autonomously, making manual sampling and testing by a lab redundant. The combination of a proven technology that can be applied in-line to optimize and make processes more sustainable, and can be applied in multiple end markets such as horticulture and (waste) water management, makes it an interesting investment for us.”

About CE-Line

CE-Line is a high-tech company that develops unique analysis equipment to perform all laboratory analyzes of irrigation and drain water directly in the greenhouse. This makes a lot of data available quickly. CE-Line has software, mechanical and chemical knowledge and operates internationally. In addition to horticulture, the company is also taking the first steps in analyzing waste water that is reused for the production of bio plastics. CE-Line won the GreenTech Concept Award in 2020, was included in The Foodtech 500 in 2022 and was nominated for the GreenTech Innovation Award in 2023.

About Yield Lab Europe

Yield Lab Europe invests in young European AgriFoodTech companies to make global food and agricultural production systems more sustainable and efficient while improving profitability. This includes technologies in crop production, animal welfare, precision agriculture, horticulture, food ingredients, supply chain/logistics and food processing/packaging. Yield Lab Europe collaborates with Dutch institutions such as InvestNL, BOM and OostNL. The fund has made 22 investments to date.