A £2.5 million investment is helping Bloemteknik turn lighting into a strategic growth lever for modern agriculture. The Cardiff-based company, backed by Foresight Group through the British Business Bank’s Investment Fund for Wales, is pushing beyond hardware to redefine how growers manage light as a living input rather than a fixed cost.
Lighting expertise turned into a grower advantage
Founded in early 2023 by former GE executives James Fleet and Charlie Benson, Bloemteknik was built around a clear insight that traditional horticultural lighting was no longer keeping pace with the demands of high-intensity food production. Drawing on decades of experience at Current, powered by GE, the duo set out to design lighting systems that respond to how crops actually grow, not generic specifications.
Fleet brings more than 25 years of commercial and leadership experience, shaping Bloem’s focus on measurable grower outcomes, while Benson leads product design and engineering, translating horticultural needs into robust, scalable technology.
The result is a modular LED platform tailored to specific crops and environments, offering growers control and consistency rather than simple illumination. That approach has driven rapid global adoption, with over 25,000 fixtures now deployed across commercial greenhouses and vertical farms where precision directly impacts profitability.
Software-led farming takes centre stage
The centrepiece of Bloem’s expansion is GreenFingers, its autonomous lighting ecosystem. Rather than relying on static settings, the platform uses advanced algorithms to continuously adjust supplementary lighting in real time. The goal is simple but powerful. It is to maintain stable daily light levels while smoothing out environmental fluctuations.
With Foresight’s backing, GreenFingers has moved rapidly from late-stage development into commercial deployment. The platform allows growers to focus on output and quality, while the system quietly optimises performance in the background. It reflects a broader shift in controlled-environment agriculture, where software intelligence increasingly defines operational efficiency.
Scaling globally, growing locally
This deal marks Foresight’s seventh investment from the £130 million Investment Fund for Wales, reinforcing its role in backing scalable Welsh innovation. For Bloem, the capital will strengthen delivery capacity, accelerate international expansion, and support new hires across operations, finance, and sales in Wales.
The partnership also brings strategic input at board level and access to Foresight’s wider network. Alongside the equity investment, Bloem has secured more than £700,000 from Innovate UK through the Investor Partnership Programme, fuelling further advances of GreenFingers.
Together, funding, software, and local talent are positioning Bloemteknik to play a meaningful role in the next phase of controlled-environment farming.
James Fleet, CEO of Bloem, commented: “Bringing GreenFingers to market simply wouldn’t have been possible at this pace without Foresight’s backing. Their investment has enabled us to turn an ambitious concept into meaningful value for growers. GreenFingerscreates a truly autonomous self-optimising lighting ecosystem, using advanced algorithms to determine the optimal supplementary intensity and spectrum. It automatically adjusts LED fixtures in real time to maintain a consistent DLI under a balanced cultivation environment.”
Bethan Bannister, Senior Investment Manager, Nations and Regions Investment Funds at the British Business Bank, said: “It’s great to see how the Investment Fund for Wales is accelerating the rate at which innovative businesses like Bloem, are able to bring new products to market. Bloem’s development journey is impressive and with their strategic growth ambitions being supported with this funding, we look forward to seeing their ongoing success.”
Ashley Rogers, Investment Manager at Foresight Group, commented: “Bloem has demonstrated strong early traction in a fast-growing market, with a differentiated product and experienced team. We’re pleased to support their growth and innovation, particularly as they expand into new geographies and continue to build on their market leading proposition.”
