Laava Tech Promised the EIC Accelerator 75% Grow Light Savings

Vertical farms grow lettuce and herbs in stacked trays under artificial light, and electricity is the cost that sinks most of them. Laava Tech, a small company in Tallinn, told the European Innovation Council it had the answer: an AI system that would tune every LED in a farm to the plant beneath it and cut the lighting bill "by up to 75% (vs LED grow lights), whilst increasing crop yields by up to 20%", according to the project objective on CORDIS. The EU agreed to pay €2,397,109.75 of the €3,424,442.50 project.

Five years later no launch of the product, no independent test of those savings and no named paying customer can be found. The company's filed accounts show no sales at all in 2024 or 2025. In February 2026 Estonian media reported that the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) suspects the founder of fraud in obtaining the subsidy and that Brussels wants more than €2 million back, according to Zerkalo and Reform.news, both citing Ekspress Delfi. No charge or verdict has been reported, and the presumption of innocence applies.

Where Laava Tech Stands Now

On paper the company still exists. The Estonian e-Business Register lists Laava Tech OÜ as entered in the register, with share capital of €12,500. Its 2024 and 2025 annual reports were both filed on 11 March 2026, and the 2025 report declares the company a going concern. They show sales revenue of zero in both years, a loss of €17,998 in 2024 and €1,012 in 2025, and €86,444 in cash at the end of 2025. The 2025 report records no labour costs.

The register entry also carries a restraining note on Zaretskaya's 90% stake: by a ruling of the Harju County Court of 22 December 2025 in criminal case no. 1-25-6877, the share was arrested to secure a civil claim and a ban on disposing of it was entered. That matches the press reports of a December 2025 court order freezing her Estonian bank accounts up to €1.8 million and barring transactions in her shares in Estonian companies. Belarusian outlet Nasha Niva reported that she obtained residency in the United Arab Emirates in June 2025, according to Reform.news.

The company website, still online in an archived copy of January 2026, showed by August 2026 only a hosting placeholder. Whether Laava Tech has any operations left cannot be confirmed, which is why this article records its status as unknown rather than active.

The Technology: Pulsed Light, Contested Numbers

FarMind was described as sensors and cameras across the farm that measure growth stage, nutrients, temperature, CO2 and moisture, an AI system that turns the data into a lighting strategy, and a control unit on each LED that sets "amplitude, duration, period, filling (on-and-off ratio), power of pulse, sequence order of pulsation for red and blue channels", according to the company's final periodic report. In 2021 chief executive Tatsiana Zaretskaya told Vertical Farm Daily that the lights pulse up to 35,000 times per second to match the light and dark phases of photosynthesis.

The savings claim moved with the audience. CORDIS gives up to 75% and, in the final report, 60 to 75%. Vertical Farm Daily quoted up to 80%. The company's website in 2024 said up to 75% with yields up to 30%, not 20%. The Start-up Energy Transition database says 50% against modern LED grow lights. No peer-reviewed study or independent trial backing any of these figures could be found. A biologist at the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, asked by Nasha Niva in November 2022, called 75% savings with 20% more yield either "a serious fundamental breakthrough in science, or another Lysenkoism" (translated).

What FarMind Promised, and What the Record Shows

The European Commission's list of companies selected at the 7 October 2020 cut-off of the EIC Accelerator pilot names Laava Tech of Kelvingi, Viimsi, for FarMind with grant-only funding, and no other beneficiary for the project. CORDIS confirms Laava Tech as sole participant, a grant signed on 17 February 2021 and a project that ran from 1 February 2021 to 31 January 2023, now closed. It is the company's only project on CORDIS.

The final report says FarMind was "tested in collaboration with tens of pilot partners" but names none. It promised 80 new green jobs in Europe and FarMind in 5.9 million square metres of farms by 2027. In the CORDIS results summary of June 2023, Zaretskaya said the team had "successfully developed and refined this technology" and that "as we inch closer to the market launch, we are enthusiastic". No launch was announced afterwards.

1. AI lighting control system builtCompany claim onlyDescribed in the CORDIS report; Nasha Niva's 2022 sources said no finished solution had reached customers.
2. 60 to 75% lower lighting energy, 20% more yieldNot shownNo published trial data or independent test.
3. Market launch, FarMind as a serviceNot deliveredNo launch announced; zero sales in 2024 and 2025.
4. 80 new jobs in EuropeMissedAverage staff peaked at 15 in 2022, then fell to 1.
5. 5.9 million m² of farms by 2027MissedNo customer installation announced.

The Doubts, Then the Prosecutors

Questions began while the grant was running. In September 2022 Zaretskaya became the finance and economy representative of the Belarusian opposition's United Transitional Cabinet and resigned within two months, citing threats. On 3 November 2022 Nasha Niva published an investigation saying it had found "no evidence that any lamps developed and manufactured by Laava Tech exist at this point" (translated), that the website did not work, and that current and former employees it spoke to knew of no finished technical solution delivered to customers. Zaretskaya did not answer its questions. In July 2024 the outlet reported, from Estonian register data, that the company had shrunk to one or two employees and had missed the deadline for its 2023 accounts.

According to the February 2026 reports, the EPPO opened a criminal investigation into Laava Tech's EU funding in 2024, suspects damage to the EU budget of almost €450,000, and has two other suspects besides Zaretskaya. European Delegated Prosecutor Kristiina Savtšenkova told a Tallinn District Court hearing that "in case of suspected fraud, the grantor has the right to demand the return of the entire subsidy", as Zerkalo reported (translated). Defence lawyer Denis Chasovskikh said she was cooperating with the investigation and expected the circumstances "to be established quickly and impartially". The Nasha Niva report on the case gives the same figures.

The Money

The annual reports in the register trace the grant's arc. In the 14 months to December 2021 the company booked €1,334,994 of other operating income, followed by €735,649 in 2022 and €120,305 in 2023, a total of €2,190,948; the reports do not say what this income was. Sales over the same period came to €114,473. Labour costs totalled €1,091,940, peaking at €614,443 in 2022 with 15 average staff. A profit of €216,610 in 2020/21 turned into losses of €106,020 in 2022 and €103,933 in 2023, and equity fell from €320,574 to €91,611 at the end of 2025.

No equity round or outside investor could be found. Laava Tech is not among the 319 companies in the EIC Fund portfolio, which is consistent with its grant-only award. If Brussels recovers more than €2 million, as reported, the company's last balance sheet of €92,277 in total assets would cover a small fraction of it.

Why Europe Should Care

Cutting the electricity that indoor farms burn on light fits squarely with EU policy: the revised Energy Efficiency Directive sets a goal of cutting final energy consumption by at least 11.7% by 2030, That is why claims of 75% savings deserved hard evidence. FarMind's case shows the cost when an EIC grant rests on a performance figure that was never independently tested: the money went out, the product did not come to market, and the recovery is now a matter for prosecutors.

The Verdict

Laava Tech and Tatsiana Zaretskaya have not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on public records, EU project data and published reports, linked throughout.