Frequency Highlights: Biome Indoor Ecosystems

We at Frequency recently had the chance to talk to Collin Cavote, the founder of Biome. Biome is Frequency’s go-to plant wall provider because they’re mission-driven, uniquely healthy, heavily accessible, and constantly innovating. Below, we’ll cover Biome’s story: Why it started, how it’s going, and how their vision aims to provide a unique indoor biophilic experience.

Biome began as an academic pursuit in the mid-2010s. Between Collin’s fascination with biomimicry and an awareness of the importance and detriments of urban air quality spurred by a half a year spent off-grid, the seeds for Biome were planted long before the vision of an IoT (internet of things) ecosystem came into view. As he dug into these subjects and continued to educate himself on potential outcomes for the environment at large, it became clear that a solution marrying these two interests would be grounded in biology. From there, it took five years of experimental hacking before he brought on a CTO and launched Biome’s first commercial-grade product: the Taiga plant wall.

Biome’s flagship product, the Taiga, is the ideal solution to create an indoor ecosystem. With a sleek design, cloud-connected software, and 34 perfectly-housed tropical plants, Taiga is built to maximize the beauty, benefit, and ease of bringing nature indoors while representing a broader mission to ethically naturalize the indoor environment.

Today, Biome continues to actualize the solution marrying biomimicry and a concern for indoor air quality that can bring nature to people regardless of their environmental conditions. At the micro level, Biome’s Taiga is a best-in-class turnkey solution to seamlessly bring nature indoors, keep it alive, and maximize its benefits. To accomplish this, Biome’s Taiga exists as the synthesis between three elements: sensors that monitor and measure the indoor environment; software that optimizes indoor ecology; and a product casing that hangs like a whiteboard and needs to be watered no more than once per week. Interestingly, Biome’s broader vision is more expansive than making the best indoor plant wall. Rather, Biome’s broader goal is to engineer the solution that keeps people connected to nature in a world where environmental conditions continue to decline and people are driven indoors. 

For this reason, Collin is keen to emphasize that Biome’s vision is not simply to put plants on a wall, but to create the ideal IoT and software solution to nourish a flourishing indoor ecosystem. This means Biome doesn’t just host plants, but it owns the biology tech stack, with intimate knowledge of the growers, plants, and genetics at play; Biome doesn’t just optimize for specific conditions, but works to operate in every indoor ecosystem around the world. On top of this, they’re committed to accomplishing this all ethically as a Public Benefit Corporation, a corporate structure holding the company responsible for a “triple bottom line” of people, planet and profit. To accomplish this vision, they have a robust approach to research & development, always exploring new plants to add into their plant marketplaces, indoor and outdoor conditions to simulate and optimize, and new ways that they can deploy this unique combination of software, environmental sensors, and biology. 

“Collin is keen to emphasize that Biome’s vision is not simply to put plants on a wall, but to create the ideal IoT and software solution to nourish a flourishing indoor ecosystem”

Of course, achieving excelling outcomes requires excellent vision, discipline, and execution. Biome’s ability to achieve its broader vision depends on the team’s ability to remain viable and hit key milestones. In asking Collin a bit about Biome’s key upcoming inflection points, he was proud (deservingly so) that Biome will be hitting break-even within the next year – a major accomplishment for any company, especially one that is hardware-based. He believes that will be a key aspect of the upcoming Series A funding round they aim to raise over the next few months. While Biome’s vision is undeniable, Collin is aware that Biome’s goals will require the right partners, and it's their responsibility to create a company with fundamentals that earn investors with a penchant for climate and wellness that can help actualize Biome’s broader aims. From there, Biome will seek to continue innovating with projects like a robust environmental simulator, adding new plants into the ecosystem, and standing at the forefront of innovation in the cut-flower industry (picture cut flowers surviving 10 years, not days).

Before we wrapped up, I asked Collin if he had any words of wisdom for people building cool things to make people feel good. His immediate response was to build something that’s solving an actual problem, as “there’s a lot of useless crap out there and we don’t need any more of it.” He advises working on something that gets under your skin because during the times that actualizing your vision sucks, and it will suck, that energy and passion may be key to powering through and staying gritty.

Given all of this, it’s no surprise why Biome is one of our favorite vendors. At Frequency, we see Biome as an integral aspect of creating spaces where people feel good, both now and in the future. Biome impacts the indoor environment on multiple levels with the sole purpose of improving the human experience with great air, live plants, and the essence of a company and product that are humanity-first.