The most energy-intensive part of a hydroponic farm isn't the LED lights or the water pumps. It's the stuff the plants grow in. Rockwool, the spun mineral fiber that anchors most commercial indoor crops, is made by melting basalt rock at over 1,500 degrees Celsius. Lyrata, a Toronto startup, thinks it has a cooler alternative. Its product, called SmartSoil, is a 3D-printed substrate made from biopolymers like corn-derived polylactic acid, formed at temperatures far lower than those required for rockwool [The Brighter Side of News, 2026]. It's a quiet, material-science bet on decarbonizing the very foundation of indoor farming.
A wedge of temperature and transport
Lyrata's pitch is built on two unit economics that matter to any grower: embodied carbon and logistics. Rockwool production is a furnace, and the finished slabs are bulky and light, making shipping expensive per unit of growing volume. SmartSoil, by contrast, is manufactured from a biopolymer feedstock that can be sourced locally, like Ontario corn, and printed on demand. The company claims the process requires "much lower temperatures" than traditional methods [The Brighter Side of News, 2026]. For a commercial greenhouse operator, the promise is a growing medium with a lower carbon footprint from production and one that might be cheaper to move from factory to farm. Lyrata positions it as an eco-friendly substrate that emits less carbon than other hydroponic options and uses less water than field growing [University of Toronto Entrepreneurship].
From substrate to service
Publicly, Lyrata wears two hats, which makes its business model a moving target. Its core technology is the SmartSoil substrate, a product it could sell to other hydroponic operators. But the company also runs its own "farming-as-a-service" operation, growing vegetables for caterers and restaurants across the Greater Toronto Area [University of Toronto Alumni]. Recent installations at Casa Loma and the University of Toronto Scarborough campus appear to be full growing systems, not just substrate sales [U of T Engineering News, 2026]. This dual approach,selling the pickaxe and mining for gold,is a classic startup hedge. It allows Lyrata to prove its technology works at scale in its own controlled environments while building a direct revenue stream.
The founding team, Adnan Sharif and Patrick Diep, emerged from the University of Toronto's Hatchery program, a common launchpad for the city's deep-tech ventures [Hatchery Speaker Series]. Sharif's background includes polymer science and patent drafting [LinkedIn], a relevant skillset for developing a proprietary material. What the public record lacks is any disclosed venture funding or named institutional investors, suggesting the company is still running on non-dilutive university support and early revenue.
The rockwool mountain
Lyrata's success hinges on displacing an entrenched, low-cost incumbent. Rockwool is cheap, sterile, and effective. The global hydroponic substrate market is worth billions, and rockwool holds a dominant share. For SmartSoil to win, it must prove superior economics on more than just carbon. Growers will need to see equal or better crop yields, no pathogen risks from the organic-based material, and a total cost,substrate plus any changes to nutrient regimens,that is competitive.
- Yield parity. The substrate must not hinder growth. Any reduction in harvest weight or speed directly hits a farm's revenue.
- Sterility. Organic materials can harbor microbes. The product must be consistently sterile to prevent crop loss, a non-negotiable for commercial growers.
- Price per liter. Even with lower embodied carbon, the final price to the farmer must be within striking distance of rockwool. A green premium exists, but it's narrow in agriculture.
Lyrata's farming-as-a-service model is a clever end-run around this adoption challenge. By controlling the entire grow cycle, they remove the risk for the first customer,themselves. If they can produce lettuce or herbs profitably at Casa Loma using SmartSoil, that's a powerful case study to take to a large greenhouse operator.
Doing a back-of-the-envelope check: if producing a cubic meter of rockwoool emits roughly 200 kg of CO2 from the melting process alone, and SmartSoil's biopolymer printing cuts that by, say, 75 percent, the carbon saving per farm starts to scale meaningfully. A mid-sized urban farm using 10,000 cubic meters of substrate a year could see a reduction of 1,500 metric tons of CO2. That's the equivalent of taking over 300 gasoline-powered cars off the road for a year. The real test for Lyrata isn't just making a greener sponge. It's convincing a large-scale hydroponic tomato grower that their plants will be just as happy in it as they are in rockwool, and for a price that doesn't wilt the balance sheet.
Sources
- [The Brighter Side of News, 2026] 3D-printed soil: Never forget to water your plants again | https://www.thebrighterside.news/post/3d-printed-soil-never-forget-to-water-your-plants-again/
- [University of Toronto Entrepreneurship] Lyrata Inc profile | https://hatchery.engineering.utoronto.ca/companies/lyrata-inc/
- [University of Toronto Alumni] U of T Engineering startup Lyrata offers fresh solutions for sustainable urban farming | https://alumni.utoronto.ca/news/lyrata-sustainable-urban-farming
- [U of T Engineering News, 2026] With new installations at Casa Loma and U of T Scarborough, Lyrata offers fresh solutions for sustainable urban farming | https://news.engineering.utoronto.ca/with-new-installations-at-casa-loma-and-u-of-t-scarborough-lyrata-offers-fresh-solutions-for-sustainable-urban-farming/
- [Hatchery Speaker Series] Hatchery Speaker Series: Adnan Sharif & Patrick Diep | https://hatchery.engineering.utoronto.ca/events/hatchery-speaker-series-adnan-sharif-patrick-diep/
- [LinkedIn] Adnan Sharif - Co-Founder (President) - Lyrata Inc | https://www.linkedin.com/in/adnan-sharif-912a0a18a/?_l=en