Eternal.Ag Appoints Roel Janssen as Chief Business Development Officer

Janssen will work directly with growers to support the deployment of harvesting robots and support the adoption of automation

Cologne, GERMANY – The German agritech startup, eternal.ag, has appointed Roel Janssen as its Chief Business Development Officer as the company enters a new phase of growth. Janssen will be responsible for advancing eternal.ag’s mission to fully automate greenhouses by 2040 by directly supporting growers in deploying harvesting robots.

He joins eternal.ag from vertical farming company Planet Farms and brings a long track record of scaling horticultural innovation from infancy to global growth. He previously led business development for Philips Lighting’s horticultural LED arm, and later its spin-out company Signify. By collaborating closely with growers to refine yield, quality, and harvest predictability through advanced LED technology, he played a pivotal role in establishing Signify as a market leader in the horticulture sector.

Janssen joins eternal.ag as the company focuses on its growth across Europe in the coming year, with North American expansion also in its sights. With industry experience spanning Europe, North America and the APAC region, Janssen will lead this strategy and support the adoption of automation in horticulture.

Eternal.ag emerged from stealth in March with €8 million in funding and launched its first commercial robot, the fully-autonomous Harvester, developed to harvest tomatoes and mitigate widespread greenhouse labor shortages. Last week, it also launched its omni-directional Trolley, a modular crop work tool that can be upgraded into a Harvester as a stepping stone to automation. The capital raised is being invested into key hires, technical advancements and executing the company’s international growth plans.

Janssen said: “I have always been a believer in horticultural automation, but it was not until I saw the Harvester in person that I realized that the future of scalable, automated farming is no longer just a concept – it’s already here. I joined eternal.ag because I wanted to be part of the journey that finally bridges the gap between manual labor and true robotic autonomy.”

Eternal.ag’s co-founder and CEO, Renji John, said: “With his accomplished background of taking disruptive agritech from initial trials to global market leadership, Roel brings the expertise we need to scale globally. His unique experience – merging his pioneering roots in lighting with his achievements in international expansion and crop optimization – has earned him a strong horticultural network and diverse industry expertise, which are invaluable assets to our team.”

Janssen continued: “I intend to work with growers as a partner to ensure our technology directly addresses their long-term challenges and provides them with lasting operational security. Robotics is something relatively new to greenhouses so growers need trust and reliability from us – I look forward to building that across eternal.ag’s key markets over the coming months.”

Janssen will represent eternal.ag at Greentech Amsterdam, where the company will demonstrate its recently launched Trolley, a modular crop work trolley which can be later upgraded into a Harvester.

About eternal.ag

Eternal.ag is a German agritech startup building fully autonomous harvesting robots for greenhouses. The startup eliminates the single biggest risk in greenhouse operations: labor uncertainty. Its robots handle the repetitive, physically demanding crop work with consistent precision, enabling growers to run predictable operations and deliver uniform harvest quality at scale. Founded in 2025 by Renji John and Sherry Kunjachan, eternal.ag has grown to a 26-person team with headquarters in Cologne and an office in Bengaluru. The company is backed by Simon Capital, Oyster Bay Venture Capital, Equity Pitcher and Backbone Ventures.

Learn more at eternal.ag.