S11E143 Elmar Mair/Neatleaf - AI Crop Management Powered by Neatleaf’s Spider

Vertical Farming Podcast

In this episode, I speak with Elmar Mair, the CEO and founder of Neatleaf. Elmar shares his fascinating journey from growing up in the Italian countryside to becoming a leader in the vertical farming industry. We dive into his early passion for AI and robotics, which led him to work on groundbreaking projects like Google's Everyday Robot. Elmar's story is a testament to how diverse experiences can converge to create innovative solutions in agriculture. His insights into the fourth agricultural revolution and the potential of data-driven farming are truly eye-opening.

We also explore the origins of Neatleaf and the challenges Elmar faced in starting the company during the pandemic. He discusses the development of their flagship product, the Neat Spider, a cable-based robot that monitors crops in greenhouses. Elmar's enthusiasm for leveraging technology to improve crop yields and reduce waste is contagious. Whether you're a tech enthusiast or someone interested in sustainable farming, this episode offers a wealth of knowledge and inspiration.

Join us as we uncover the future of agriculture through the lens of AI and robotics.

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Key Takeaways

1:07 Elmar's Journey from Google to Agtech

3:34 The Fascination with AI's Capabilities

5:05 Complexity in Robotics

8:35 The Future of Greenhouse Technology

9:52 Neatleaf's Impact on Agriculture

12:57 Challenges in Agtech Adoption

17:13 The Evolution of the Spider System

19:39 Recruiting Challenges for Startups

22:42 The Importance of Mission and Meaning

27:52 Evolution of the Cultivator Role

28:54 Analogy of London Cab Drivers and Cultivators

32:43 Cannabis as a High-Margin Market

34:41 Automation and Data in Large-Scale Farming

37:00 Automating Cultivation Processes

41:28 Automation in Agriculture

Tweetable Quotes

"I fell in love with automation, robotics, and AI, and ended up studying that, working in space. Then I learned about agriculture and the fourth agricultural revolution. It felt like closing the loop, coming from the countryside, spending summers at my aunt's farm, and now working in that space again."

"The first time I actually programmed an embedded system and had an impact in the physical world with my programming, I realized, wow, this is super exciting. You can distort audio, make a guitar distortion device, and see something moving around. I wanted to move things in the world and talk to these machines."

"In cultivation, one of the biggest markets and the oldest markets, we rely on humans to walk the aisles, look at the crop, understand what's going on, and interpret the language of the plants. It's such a complex space with all these factors—temperature, humidity, CO2, lighting, irrigation, nutrients—all correlated and impacting each other. And a human goes in there and subjectively assesses the situation."

Resources Mentioned

Website - https://www.neatleaf.com/

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/elmar-mair/

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/neatleaf.inc/

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Mentioned in this episode:

CEA Summit East 2024

CEA Summit East 2024

Indoor AgCon 2025

Indoor AgCon 2025