AgTech Founders Interview
eternal.ag CEO Renji on fully autonomous tomato harvesting robots
Editorial intro
Most founders in 2025 chased software. Renji and Sherry built a robot.
eternal.ag was founded that year on a thesis that European greenhouses are facing a structural labor crisis software cannot fix. European greenhouse labor has declined 30% since 2010. Migration policies are tightening. The workforce is aging. Less demanding jobs are paying better. The math, for a grower trying to harvest tomatoes year-round, simply does not work anymore.
Q1. Niranjan (AgRoboNews.com): You founded eternal.ag in 2025 — a year when most founders were chasing software. What made you and Sherry bet on hardware, greenhouses, and robots?
Renji (eternal.ag):
I’ve been working in the horticulture sector for many years and have been driven by the very real and persistent problem of structural labor shortages in Europe and many other places across the world. This is by far the biggest pain point for growers and it puts a consistent and resilient food supply at risk. Greenhouses especially, being indoor and tightly controlled environments, are vital for the food system because yields are produced year-round and are highly resilient to extreme weather, a changing climate and pests.
The world is changing: migration policies are shifting, the workforce is aging and far less demanding jobs are paying staff more, so workers are dwindling in number and it doesn’t look like this is going to change. It was clear to Sherry and I that this labor would only be backstopped with robotics - and robots are reaching a maturity level which makes the timing right for bringing our solution to market. Software-only solutions can support areas like optimization of greenhouse processes, but they are unable to solve this key labor problem as they still need human operators and physical manipulation.
Greenhouses are ideal for developing this solution because they are already highly controlled environments capable of integrating new technologies. AI and computer vision are central to our overall technology as they allow our robots to perceive their environment, act and improve over time.
Read full interview (AgRoboNews.com)