LINFA by Lualtek · Company and product

The company

Lualtek. Farming you can run from anywhere.

Lualtek S.r.l. is an Italian innovative start-up based in Sicily. It offers a service to monitor and automate greenhouses and open-field crops: LoRaWAN® radio sensors, actuators that open windows and start irrigation, and an app to see everything from a phone.^{1 2}

2021

The company was set up in March, after a trial run in a berry greenhouse in summer 2020.source³

10 people

On the team page: software, sales, data, agronomy and electronics.source²

86,000 m²

Total area of the seven installations shown on the company website.source⁵

−40% water

Plus −15% electricity and +20% yield: results reported by the farms using it after the first year.source^{3 4}

€300,000

First equity round, announced in 2022 with Italian and foreign investors.source³

Luma AI

An assistant that reads sensor data and suggests irrigation and disease prevention.source⁶

Savings are claimed by Lualtek and its customers; we did not verify them. The total area is our own sum of the seven published figures.

Legal nameLualtek S.r.l., innovative start-up
Head officeVia Attilio Regolo, 26 · 97013 Comiso (RG), Italy
VAT numberIT 01756670889
Websitelualtek.io

Org chart

Technology, yes. Run by real people.

Names and roles come from Lualtek's «About us» page. Surnames are shown only where a second public source confirms them.^{2 8}

Luca OcchipintiCEO & Co-founder

Alessio OcchipintiCo-founder

Software

Mattia AstorinoLead UI Engineer

Simone GasbarroniLead Backend Engineer

SalvatoreFrontend Developer

Hardware

PierluigiEmbedded Systems

Data and agronomy

OrazioData Analyst

AndreaAgricultural Technician

Sales

Andrea CardiniSales manager

AngeloSales

LINFA project · new product for the home

Thomas AddamoProject & Product Manager

Daniele PorcaroHardware & Engineering Manager

Matteo PavoniDesign & Production Manager

Alessandro GuttadauroMarketing & Sales Manager

How to read it. Lualtek publishes roles but not reporting lines: the grouping by area is ours. The four dashed boxes are the fictional part of this school project: we are the four students who ran the project, with made-up managerial roles. We are not Lualtek employees.

The product

LINFA. Water below, soil above.

A smart planter that keeps water in a separate tank under the soil, measures the air around the plant and shows how it is doing on a display and in an iPhone app.

Features

Ø 200 × 220 mm, 14 parts, 3D-printed in PLA+.
ESP32-C3 with Wi-Fi, SHT31 air sensor, 1.3″ OLED display, button.
Float switch for the minimum water level.
Powered by USB, 5 V.

Benefits

Refill from outside, without wetting the soil from above.
It tells you when the water is running low.
Opens without tools: the electronics come out in one box.
Check the plant from anywhere with the app.

What is new

Tank, sensors, display and app in a single planter.
Farm-grade know-how from Lualtek, scaled down for the home.
Sold online, no installer needed, ready for the European market.

Where it really stands. LINFA is a prototype. Sensors, display and vase status work in the project; the pump has not been bench-tested yet, so automatic watering is not a demonstrated feature. The purchase flow on this site is a demo: nothing is charged.

See the product page Try the buying demo ›

Target customers

Plant lovers. Short on time.

We start from Italy, with a product designed to be sold online across Europe.

59%

Of Italian households have at least one plant at home (Censis, 2022): about 15.7 million out of 26.6 million households.source^{9 10}

1 in 3

More than one household in three is a single person: when they are away, nobody waters.source¹⁰

$6.9 bn

European urban gardening products market in 2025, expected to grow 8.9% a year.source¹¹

City dwellers assumption

Aged 25-45, living in a flat, often away for work or weekends. They want living plants without daily care.

Smart-home fans assumption

They already own connected devices and like seeing temperature, humidity and water level on their phone.

Gift buyers assumption

A design object under €150, for a new home or for someone who «kills every plant».

The three profiles are our assumptions: we ran no interviews or surveys.

For the investor

€149. And when it pays back.

Retail price, margin per unit, break-even point and payback period, using the same figures as our market simulator.

€149

Retail price, VAT included, with power adapter. Between Plantsio Ivy (€119) and Click & Grow 9 (€199).

≈ €87

Cost of one 3D-printed unit: plastic, 38 machine hours, €40 of electronics, packaging and assembly.

≈ €17

Margin per unit after 22% VAT and 15% sales commissions.

353 units

Break-even. Units to sell in a year to cover €6,000 of fixed costs: about one a day.

Yearly profit and payback period

Scenario	Year	Units sold	Net revenue	Profit for the year	Cumulative cash
Cautious 1% of plant-owning households interested, 0.5% choose LINFA	1	262	€27,199	−€1,539	−€6,539
	2	549	€56,992	€3,348	−€3,192
	3	865	€89,797	€8,728	€5,536
	4	908	€94,261	€9,460	€14,996
	5	954	€99,036	€10,243	€25,240
Base 2% interested, 1.5% choose LINFA	1	1,569	€162,880	€20,715	€15,715
	2	3,296	€342,163	€50,119	€65,834
	3	5,191	€538,885	€82,384	€148,218
	4	5,450	€565,773	€86,794	€235,013
	5	5,723	€594,113	€91,443	€326,455

28 months

Payback period, cautious scenario. The €5,000 initial investment and the first-year loss are recovered halfway through year three. This is the scenario we consider most honest with 3D printing: 2 to 5 printers running non-stop are enough.

3 months

Payback period, base scenario. On paper it pays back at once, but it would take 8 printers running day and night in year one and nearly 30 at full speed: at those volumes injection moulding is needed, with a further investment.

What is assumed. Initial investment (€5,000), fixed costs (€6,000 a year), commissions (15%), labour cost and market shares are our assumptions, not quotes. The market grows 5% a year and sales ramp up slowly. Not included: income tax, returns and warranty, buying the printers, certification beyond the assumed amount. Electronics (€40) and plastic (€15/kg) are real costs from the prototype.

All sources are listed, in Italian, on the company page and in the market analysis.