At CES 2024, French startup Neoplants showed off its progress with indoor plants that serve as air purifiers designed for homes. According to the company, the bioengineered plants can replace 20 “conventional” indoor plants, as measured by how many pollutants the plants can remove from the air.
The company was founded in 2018 and has raised approximately $20 million to date (investors include True Ventures, Heartcore, Entrepreneur First, and Collaborative Fund). The company has been working hard to back up the efficacy of its green houseplant friends with some hard data and research.
The company presented graphics showing that its factories are taking a sustainable and potentially game-changing approach to improving indoor air quality, which could very well spark a greener, cleaner revolution in the spaces we live and work in. Plus, they even look much better than the best-designed air purifiers on the market.
Neoplants were demonstrated at CES 2024, and in a controlled experiment, the plants were significantly more efficient at purifying the air than their unmodified counterparts. Image Source: Hadj Campos/TechCrunch
Neo P1 goes beyond the benefits of common indoor plants and also addresses the critical issue of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) posing health risks to our homes and offices. Developed using synthetic biology techniques, this high-tech houseplant outperforms its unmodified counterpart, the golden grapevine (Epipremnum aureum) – ominously known as the “devil’s vine” to friends – for Substances such as volatile organic compounds commonly found in homes, such as formaldehyde and toluene, have significant air-purifying capabilities.
The company claims its factories are 20 times more efficient at purifying air than unmodified factories.
Personally, I’m glad that a few minutes of plant talk with one of the founders amidst a sea of blinking LEDs and artificial intelligence-driven stuff reminds us that technology comes in many forms. Of course, few would say this is a growth industry. Ahem.
