The former Planet Farms executive will lead the greenhouse automation company’s expansion across Europe and North America
German agritech startup eternal.ag has appointed Roel Janssen as its chief business development officer.
Janssen will be responsible for advancing eternal.ag’s mission to fully automate greenhouses by 2040 by directly supporting growers in deploying harvesting robots.
He joins eternal.ag from vertical farming company Planet Farms, bringing what the company describes as ”a long track record of scaling horticultural innovation from infancy to global growth”.
The company is focusing on growth across Europe this year, it stated, with North American expansion also in its sights.
With industry experience spanning Europe, North America and the APAC region, Janssen will lead this strategy and support the adoption of automation in horticulture.
“I have always been a believer in horticultural automation, but it was not until I saw the Harvester in person that I realised that the future of scalable, automated farming is no longer just a concept – it’s already here,” Janssen outlined.
”I joined eternal.ag because I wanted to be part of the journey that finally bridges the gap between manual labor and true robotic autonomy.”
Eternal.ag co-founder and CEO, Renji John, said: “With his accomplished background of taking disruptive agritech from initial trials to global market leadership, Roel brings the expertise we need to scale globally.
”His unique experience – merging his pioneering roots in lighting with his achievements in international expansion and crop optimisation – has earned him a strong horticultural network and diverse industry expertise, which are invaluable assets to our team.”
Janssen added: “I intend to work with growers as a partner to ensure our technology directly addresses their long-term challenges and provides them with lasting operational security.
”Robotics is something relatively new to greenhouses so growers need trust and reliability from us – I look forward to building that across eternal.ag’s key markets over the coming months.”
