Nice microgreens farm La Pousseraie raises €1m to scale up

Based on the ground floor of a building in the Saint-Roch district, the start-up co-founded by Blanche Duncombe supplies restaurants across the French Riviera. It is preparing a plant production facility in Montauroux, in the Var.

Coriander, pea or mustard shoots, grown without sunlight in the heart of Nice and served on chefs' plates. La Pousseraie is launching a €1m funding round to create a “plant manufactory”, Le Journal des Entreprises reported. The project is due to be built in Montauroux, in the Var, on a 3,000 sq m site, according to Sophianet.

The start-up was founded in 2020 by three engineers: Blanche Duncombe, its chief executive, and Juliette and Damien Willier. Their vertical farm in the Saint-Roch district grows microgreens on coconut-fibre mats irrigated by aquaponics: water circulates between fish tanks, whose waste serves as fertiliser, and the plants, which filter it in return.

The model has found its market. La Pousseraie supplies around a hundred restaurants on the French Riviera, according to France 3, and Le Journal des Entreprises describes it as a fast-growing business, driven by chefs' demand for these highly aromatic young plants, used both as garnish and as seasoning.

With the Montauroux facility, the start-up is targeting revenue of €7m. It has joined a cohort at Village by CA in Sophia Antipolis to support the scale-up.