41. Airgarden

Revenue: $858,926
Founders: Prue Bauer, Tom Bauer
Head office: Brisbane, QLD
Year founded: 2017
Employees: 4
Industry: Agriculture
Website: airgarden.com.au

How Airgarden started

Airgarden founder Prue Bauer and brother Tom started their brand after getting disenfranchised with the quality of the current food they were receiving and also in light of health issues the family had faced. After failing many times at trying to grow their own food, the pair set out to try and find a simpler solution that wasn’t so restricted by their locality or available time and experience.

It was then that they discovered aeroponics, an emerging technology developed by NASA. The technology has, to date, not been readily available in Australia, and that’s where Airgarden comes in.

It’s described as “a very steep learning curve and a baptism of fire for us in manufacturing, industrial design and engineering, not to mention horticulture and gardening.”

While nothing like Prue and Tom had originally imagined it, Airgarden 1.0 was a hit with customers, so the next step was to raise money, fix design and manufacturing pain points and improve the product to a point that it could sell and market easily.

Growth

After running out of money in its first product development mode, Airgarden was challenged to raise the funds to go back to the drawing board and prepare for Airgarden 2.0. There were many lessons about not being afraid to ask stupid questions, and having forecasting and visibility on the numbers, enough cash flow to weather hard periods. Another lesson? “Listen to your gut instinct, it’s seldom wrong.”

Where to next

Airgarden is currently focused on growing its school program offering, its commercial offering, and also focusing on being export-ready by late 2024-early 2025.

A commercial urban farm offering is being mapped out, and it’s hoped the first commercial Airgarden farm will be set up to showcase how production can be brought to where consumption is happening – the cities.

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