How SmartPlant Aims to Use Data to Boost Market Intelligence

Horticulture currently generates vast amounts of data, yet much of it remains disconnected and underutilized. A new endeavor, SmartPlant is designed to bridge this gap by transforming raw data into forward-looking intelligence.

What began as a consumer-facing tool for plant identification and care has evolved over several years of quiet infrastructure building into an enterprise-grade ecosystem. The platform connects localized consumer search trends, product interactions, and care questions directly with supply chain, retail, and manufacturing metrics.

Last week, SmartPlant officially launched the first comprehensive intelligence layer for the horticulture industry. The platform unifies fragmented market signals to help retailers, growers, breeders, and manufacturers turn consumer behavior into actionable business decisions.

“The next evolution of horticulture isn’t simply about collecting more data; it’s about building connected intelligence,” said Bert Wahlen, Founder and CEO of SmartPlant. “Data can tell a business what happened, and analytics can explain what is happening. But true intelligence reveals why it is happening and what may happen next. We have spent years quietly building the data infrastructure, plant taxonomy, and technology needed to give businesses a fundamentally different, predictive view of their markets so they can make better-informed decisions.”

By connecting consumer signals with broader market information, SmartPlant is designed to deliver targeted insights across the entire horticultural ecosystem:

• Retailers gain precise visibility into shifting local consumer demand and emerging product preferences.
• Growers receive earlier indicators of changing market needs to better inform seasonal production and crop planning.
• Breeders access new insights into how consumer preferences evolve across different regional markets over time.
• Manufacturers and brands discover where consumer interest is developing and how products perform under real-world conditions.

SmartPlant is currently onboarding select industry-leading partners to help them turn market signals into smarter operational choices. Learn more here.