The Berlin-based GreenTech startup for data-driven lawn care Halm, founded in 2021 by Austrian Niko Andreewitch and Matias Enghild, has become one of the leading providers of lawn care products.
Halm makes individualized fertilization and maintenance plans, such as those in use at soccer stadiums and golf courses around the world, available to private garden owners. Now the startup announces the entry of new investors, including the angel consortium Founders of Europe.
Thanks to clear differentiation from the traditional lawn care industry, Halm has already won thousands of subscription customers in Germany and Austria in just 18 months since launch. The startup will generate a clear seven-figure turnover in the coming year and will already be profitable in its second full season. In addition to end customer growth, the launch of a B2B product for sports fields and the expansion of the product range are the strategic focus.
“In Germany alone, more than 40 million people own a garden. Spending on gardening supplies in this market amounts to more than €25 billion per year. Halm is disrupting and digitizing this massive market of private garden owners highly successfully, which is why we decided to invest,” said Tom Urbanek, Managing Partner of Founders of Europe.
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“We were impressed by the founding team right from the start. Niko and Matias have disrupted an aging market and created an offering that they have quickly and cleverly placed in the market. The efficiency with which the founders have built Halm is impressive and I am pleased that we are able to support this success story with Founders of Europe,” says Benjamin Ruschin, Managing Partner of Founders of Europe.
In addition to Founders of Europe, business angel Karl Büche is also investing in Halm: “We invested because we learned through conversations that homeowners are almost never really satisfied with their gardens and that an innovative solution to this problem has great potential. The garden leaves no one cold, we are convinced of it!” Karl Büche explains the motivation for his investment.
Existing investors who co-invested in the round include Calm/Storm Ventures, Angel Invest (around Jens Lapinski & Jag Singh), Camouflage Ventures (Dominik Greiner) Hardlymountain Capital (around Storebox founder Johannes Braith), and a number of prominent business angels.
About Halm (www.Halm.club)
Halm gives garden owners easy access to first-class lawn care and professional results. Care programs are based on customer input and preferences, soil analysis, and turf metadata such as rainfall frequency and temperature distribution. After a laboratory-based evaluation, Halm sends care products directly to the customer in the right quantity and at the right time of year. All care products are free of pesticides and herbicides, and customization significantly reduces the unnecessary use of nutrients.
With over 40 million garden owners in Germany, the topic of lawn care is at the center of society. According to a Statista study from 2020, more than 16 million people in Germany say they have a strong interest in garden care and garden design. Halm was founded by experienced founder Niko Andreewitch (formerly of Home HT) and Matias Enghild (formerly of Klarna) in Berlin in mid-2021. The team includes Germany’s leading turf experts in Dr. Gerhard Lung (former turf commissioner for Borussia Dortmund and VfB Stuttgart, among others) and Christa Lung (biologist and chemist, author ‘Der perfekte Rasen’).
About Founders of Europe (www.foundersofeurope.com)
Founders of Europe is a Vienna-based business angel consortium founded by former and existing startup founders. Founders of Europe invests industry agnostically in pre-seed and seed rounds and supports its portfolio startups in the areas of marketing & sales, product, tech and finance.
