For Maricruz Larrea, CEO of Chilean smart farm startup, Farmtastica, farming does not involve long stretches of countryside. With the startup's technology, crops can be grown inside closets, rooms, and small spaces.
"We're not just growing leafy greens, we're building a more sustainable, localized food supply chain," Larrea, the CEO and co-founder of Farmtastica, a Chilean startup focused on controlled environment agriculture, told AJP during an interview at the Global Startup Center in the southern Seoul district of Gangnam on Apr. 23.
Farmtastica was launched in 2021 with the support of Start-Up Chile, the world's first public accelerator for startups. Created by the Chilean government in 2010, the program has helped more than 3,000 startups from over 100 countries with equity-free funding, mentorship, and access to international networks. Larrea credits the program for helping get Farmtastica off the ground.
"That first grant allowed us to build a small lab, in my co-founder's closet, actually," she recalled with a smile. "From there, we launched pilots with partners like Walmart and started delivering freshly harvested vegetables straight from the farm to stores."
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