Whether you’re looking for new house plants to fill up your home or are taking on a bigger landscaping project for your front yard, a trip to the local Home Depot won’t necessarily be needed as a new wave of Chicago startups are making moves to digitize the gardening and landscaping process.
Some of these budding startups include GrowIt!, a mobile app for browsing nursery’s inventories, and iScape, an app that lets you visualize how your landscape project will look once it’s done.
Besides catching the attention of plant-lovers, these startups are also beginning to attract the attention of investors who see the potential in a market that innovates how people surround themselves with plants and nature. Just last month, LandscapeHub, a B2B platform for suppliers and landscapers, raised $4.4 million in venture capital funding.
There’s also opportunity for startup exits as there are several large companies in the gardening and landscaping industries that will be looking to remain tech-forward. One example is Marysville, Ohio-based Scotts Miracle-Gro, which in 2016 acquired Chicago startup PlantLink, a company that sells connected devices that monitor plant health.
Chicago-based and established horticulture companies include Ball Horticulture, which specializes in plant development and distribution, and is a backer of GrowIt!, and CityScape Landscape, which has been providing landscaping services in the area since 1984.
Tech has managed to disrupt many other industries, from food to marketing and healthcare, and horticulture appears to be next. Here’s four Chicago startups working to innovate how you flex your green thumb:
GrowIt!: The startup, launched in 2015 by Mason Day and Seth Reed, has created a mobile app where users can browse the inventories of nurseries and garden shops in their area, and connect with others on their experiences growing and maintaining particular plants by sharing photos and rating them.
“[Horticulture] isn’t pushing forward like other industries have and a lot of that is due to a lack of adoption of technology,” Day said in a recent interview. “Our goal is to bridge the gap and help the horticulture industry reach more consumers.”
The app is free for consumers, but GrowIt!’s B2B aspect is what the founders think will help make the startup profitable. They work with about 100 garden shops right now, who all pay $1 to operate and showcase their inventories on the platform. But in August, that price will jump to $10.
iScape: To help homeowners and landscapers visualize what a tree will look like in a yard before purchasing and planting it, they can use iScape, a new app that uses virtual and augmented reality to show what a landscaping project will look once it’s complete.
Users take a photo of their space, upload it to iScape, and the app allows them to add plants, pavers and other landscaping elements to “see” how it will look before they begin and invest in the project.
More than 1.5 million people use iScape and nearly 5 million landscape and gardening designs have been created using the app. A subscription for 150 images and two designs saved to a cloud costs $4.99 per month. Subscriptions with even more options range up to about $100.
In the future, the startup says it plans to connect users with local landscape companies that can install their designs and ideas.
LandscapeHub: Founded by Lisa Fiore, Chad Cooper and Ed Rockhill in 2017, the Chicago startup has built a marketplace that optimizes the procurement process for nurseries and landscapers. Just last month, LandscapeHub raised $4.4 million in a seed funding round led by Chicago Ventures with participation from Hyde Park Venture Partners, Hyde Park Angels and other individual investors.
LandscapeHub’s online B2B platform alleviates inefficiencies in the green industry by letting landscapers know exactly what nursery stock and supplies are available from certain suppliers. So far, the platform has more than 6 million plants provided by over 85 suppliers, and has more than 500 buyers.
Welltended: This plant-forward startup works to match consumers with potted plants suited for their home or office, and then delivers it to them directly.
To ensure new plant owners can take care of their plants, Welltended stays in touch by giving customers tips on how to best care for them.
Carolyn Snider founded Welltended while she was a student at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. She was awarded $50,000 last year for her startup idea when she was named the winner of the Pritzker Group Venture Fellows “Battle Royale,” a student startup competition between Kellogg and the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.
