• Italian company Chloe has created two international patents for cultivation in autonomous, contamination-proof microenvironments.
• App and QR codes to activate a growth cycle with no manual intervention.
• From fine dining to large-scale retail, via pioneering experiments in orbit.

A small box that houses an entire ecosystem. Not a miniature vertical farm, but a self-sufficient, closed and modular structure, capable of producing microgreens in just a few days, without soil and without requiring any agronomic expertise. It's called Chloe, it's part of LifeGate Way, and it is the patented system developed by a Milan-based startup that has already won over Nasa.

The story of Chloe

Founded by Luca Mascetti and Paolo Mascetti, Chloe has developed a technology that allows anyone, anywhere and at any time, to independently grow up to 15 different varieties of fresh, nutritious food (including broccoli, rocket and basil). The microgreens grow inside closed, controlled boxes, without pesticides or waste: the cultivation is neither hydroponic nor does it consume soil.

By scanning a QR code on the capsule, the user activates the hydration of the substrate — a one-time operation that takes place just once for the entire growing cycle. From that moment on, everything proceeds autonomously inside closed boxes that recreate a protected microenvironment, ideal for accompanying the plant through every stage of growth. At the end, a notification signals that the plant is ready: it remains in the box, which continues to house it during distribution, right through to its arrival in the kitchen. The entire process requires up to 99 per cent less water than conventional agriculture and takes place in a protected microenvironment that can be replicated anywhere without external interference.

Chloe was awarded as part of the Deep Space Food Challenge, promoted by Nasa, which was seeking replicable solutions for growing fresh food in the absence of gravity. Thanks to the structure of the substrate and the sealed design of the system, Chloe capsules are already ready to function in extreme conditions, where traditional agriculture is impractical.

From space to the restaurant world

But the startup's ambitions are not limited to space. The first market to adopt Chloe was high-end dining (with the endorsement of Michelin-starred chef Davide Oldani), followed by a roadmap that includes large-scale organised retail and destinations such as gyms, hotels and residential buildings. Every Chloe device is scalable: it can operate as a single unit or be replicated in chains for medium-scale production.

The business model rests on three pillars: hardware sales (the Chloe Start and Chloe Fields systems), recurring revenue from consumables (the Cores capsules), and software subscriptions for remote management and monitoring. The integration of these elements allows complete control over the process, from sowing to harvest, with high efficiency and minimal logistical complexity. "Over the last 50 years we have lost an agricultural area the size of Austria due to urbanisation and land consumption. This misguided development model has deprived Italy of fertile land, putting the environment and the safety of citizens at risk. Each of our structures guarantees the maximum annual yield per square metre: 43 kg. This allows us to produce more with less, making our solution not only sustainable, but also incredibly efficient," explained founder Luca Mascetti.

The future of agritech

Unlike vertical farms, which require complex structures and significant infrastructure investment, Chloe proposes a decentralised, autonomous and accessible indoor agriculture model, designed to address real needs: nutritional quality, food safety, waste reduction and supply chain resilience.

With two international patents, active trials in Italy, North America and the United Arab Emirates, and a technology that blends sensor technology, automation and modular design, Chloe sits at the intersection of agritech and the need for fresh, healthy food. Not a stylistic exercise, but a concrete system for growing healthy, traceable and local produce, anywhere. Even where gravity and soil do not exist.