Plantaform Rejuvenate

Key numbers

The product

The Rejuvenate is an egg-shaped, glass-enclosed countertop pod that grows up to 15 plants at once from pre-seeded 'Grow Pods'. Users insert pods, fill the 9-liter dual water tank, and the app-controlled system handles lighting, humidity, and nutrient fog automatically, with refills needed only every 2-3 weeks. Fogponics uses an ultrasonic fogger to deliver nutrients as micro-droplets, consuming up to 98% less water than soil gardening and requiring zero gardening knowledge. Pods range from lettuce and salad mixes to cocktail herbs and edible flowers, with harvests ready in about four weeks. The device retails around $540 with $30 pod packs, sold direct and through Costco in North America. Unlike open-trough competitors such as AeroGarden or Lettuce Grow, the fully enclosed tinted-glass chamber is silent, mess-free, and designed to look like a piece of living furniture.

How they did it

Co-founder Kiwa Lang discovered fogponics while studying industrial design and made it his entire university thesis. He pitched the idea to high school friend Alberto Aguilar, an entrepreneur then running a biotech startup in another country, and the two teamed up with Georges Hamoush to start Plantaform in Gatineau, Quebec in 2019. They spent years prototyping with university partners, surviving COVID-era supply chain shocks and the challenge of exporting seed pods across borders. By August 2024 the company had raised over $3 million in seed funding, with backing that included an F1 driver, and had dramatically boosted production capacity. In October 2024 Plantaform landed a Costco deal and hired a veteran Ottawa tech marketing executive to lead its U.S. push, marking its true commercial breakout. The product went on to win a CES 2025 Innovation Award and earn spots on Digital Trends' Top Tech of CES 2025 list. The company remains a small team focused on the U.S. market, where it imports roughly 90% of the leafy greens the product helps households replace.

Why it worked

• Genuinely novel technology: fogponics, derived from NASA research, gives real differentiation in a crowded smart-garden market
• Nespresso-style pod model creates recurring revenue from $30 consumable packs
• Credibility stacking through a CES 2025 Innovation Award and mainstream press like The Globe and Mail
• Retail validation via Costco in the launch year, converting a niche gadget into a mass-market appliance