Source.ag, an Amsterdam company that makes AI software for commercial greenhouse growers, said on October 9, 2026 that it had acquired Optimal, a London startup whose software runs greenhouse climates without a human at the controls. The companies did not disclose the price.
Optimal's founder and CEO, Dave Hunter, joins Source as vice president of autonomous control, and Optimal's engineering team moves with him.
Source said the first autonomous deployments at its own customers in Europe and North America will go live this winter.
What Optimal built
Optimal was founded in London in 2016 by Hunter through the Entrepreneurs First programme. It built a control engine that combines physics models with machine learning to run a commercial greenhouse on its own. The software operates heating, ventilation, screens, lighting, CO₂ dosing and irrigation through the hardware growers already have, plans the growing climate days ahead and adjusts in real time as the weather changes.
The company tested the approach in its own commercial-scale demonstration greenhouse in Westdorpe in the Netherlands, growing tomatoes and cucumbers. In 2023 it reported 13% higher yield, 14% higher sugar content (Brix), 27% lower energy use and 20% lower CO₂ emissions than a benchmark Dutch greenhouse, according to HortiDaily. Optimal has also run commercial operations in the Netherlands and Canada, and in 2025 it partnered with Canadian lighting company Sollum Technologies to combine dynamic LED lighting with its climate and irrigation control.
Hunter previously ran quantitative trading at Deutsche Bank and was a member of Oxford University's machine learning group. Source said he was inspired by DeepMind's 2016 work using similar algorithms to cut cooling energy in Google's data centres by 40%. Optimal's team came from Oxford, Imperial College, Airbus and Red Bull Racing.
“Everyone is talking about physical AI. With this deal we are putting our money where our mouth is.”
Why Source.ag is buying
Source's software monitors crops, forecasts harvests weeks ahead and automates irrigation. Adding Optimal's climate control lets it close the loop, with one system both predicting how the crop will develop and steering the greenhouse to match.
"Everyone is talking about physical AI. With this deal we are putting our money where our mouth is," said Rien Kamman, Source's co-founder and CEO. He said the world needs many more greenhouses but does not have enough expert growers to run them.
Hunter made the same argument. A global shortage of skilled growers is stopping new greenhouses from being built and leaves the food system exposed to climate and energy shocks, he said. "We have proven that applied AI can overcome this scarcity by running greenhouses autonomously," he added.
Kees van Veen, CEO of Dutch grower Agro Care, said in the release that autonomous control is the logical next step and that his company intends to be among the first to use it.
The founders and the funding
Optimal was backed by Founders Fund, Backed VC, 2050 and Acequia Capital, along with angel investors Charlie Songhurst, a Meta board member, Ed Grefenstette of Google DeepMind and Wendy Tan White of Alphabet's robotics company Intrinsic. Neither company disclosed how much Optimal raised; startup databases list small early rounds and grants, with figures that conflict.
Source.ag was founded in Amsterdam in 2020 by Rien Kamman and Ernst van Bruggen. It has raised €50 million (about $58 million) from investors including Astanor Ventures, Acre Venture Partners, Enza Zaden and Harvest House. That includes a $23 million Series A led by Astanor Ventures in 2023, according to AgFunderNews.
What happens to customers
Source said its software is used in more than 500 greenhouses in 25 countries, supports about €2.5 billion (about $2.9 billion) of annual tomato, pepper and cucumber production, and works with 13 of the world's 25 largest high-tech growers. Optimal's autonomous control will be offered to those customers, starting with the first deployments in Europe and North America this winter. Source also plans to extend its AI to more crops, growing methods and regions.
A push toward autonomous greenhouses
Greenhouse growers face rising energy costs and a shortage of experienced staff, and both companies have argued that software can take over decisions that head growers now make by hand. With the deal, Source moves from advising growers on what to do to running the greenhouse itself, a step that its large Dutch customers, such as Agro Care, have said they are ready to try.
