This Week in Indoor Ag: A New Emerging Segment?
Every Sunday discover a completely free recap of the latest news in the world of Indoor/Vertical Farming
This edition is sponsored by Agro Resilience Kit Ltd & AmplifiedAg.
Good morning readers, every week discover a recap of the latest news in the world of indoor vertical farming. Announcements, funding rounds, partnerships, IPOs, we track every week all the news and condense it into one edition.
This week, we’ve seen a wealth of activity from funding announcements, the opening of new facilities, groundbreaking trials that may open new segments for the sector, and new investments announced.
Discover below this week in Indoor Ag:
Recent Funding Announcements
Earlier this week, Botalys banked a USD 6.5M ( EUR 6.6M) funding round led by ALIAD (Air Liquide Venture Capital Fund) to fuel their growth, and provide collaboration opportunities with Seppic (a subsidiary of Air Liquide Healthcare). The funding round has also seen participation from Yield Lab Europe.
“This fundraising marks a crucial step for Botalys, that of international expansion and the deployment of our technology platform on other medicinal plants. We are pleased to welcome new investors with a strong environmental vision. Our mission will remain the same: to create a new standard of quality in terms of rare medicinal plants and to satisfy the expectations of today’s consumers – ultra-purity, guaranteed effectiveness, and respect for the environment.” - CEO & Founder, Pierre-Antoine Mariage
Next up, Elevate Farms Inc. announced the company has raised in excess of C$26 million in 2022 (USD 19M) consisting of equity and secured project finance through a series of investments worldwide. The Financing was again anchored by long-time supporter, Brightspark Capital Inc., a veteran venture capital firm based in Montreal and Toronto, Canada, and represented on the Elevate Farms Board by founding Partner Mark Skapinker.
Amin Jadavji, the CEO, of Elevate Farms, stated “Brightspark’s return as a significant investor in our most successful period of fundraising, along with the election of Douglas Janzen to our Board at the last meeting of shareholders, speaks to the exceptional growth of profile and institutional support, both internally and externally, Elevate has received in the capital markets industry. We are now exceptionally well capitalized and buoyed by outstanding institutional backing through commercial and corporate governance expertise.”
AmplifiedAg is committed to creating farms that consume fewer resources, produce less waste, and grow more food for the world. Discover more here
Corporate Activity
A number of companies announced successful trials, new partnerships, and the opening of new growing centers.
First, Eden Green Technology announced its continued momentum with the opening of a new 2-acre vertical greenhouse in Cleburne, TX, as well as the onsite expansion of an additional 3-acre facility.
The new greenhouses are another milestone in Eden Green’s vision to increase local food accessibility, affordability, and sustainability worldwide. Its unique vertical-farm-within-a-greenhouse empowers producers, retailers, and suppliers to rapidly introduce and expand their Controlled Environment Agriculture offerings, including white-label and private-label produce. Eden Green’s modular, decentralized nationwide “mesh network” of high-density vertical greenhouses will drastically shorten supply chains, eliminating millions of excess food miles and their associated costs, environmental impact, and spoilage.
Then, In the first UK trials of their kind, tree seedlings are being grown six times faster in a vertical farm compared to traditional outdoor sowing.
Growing 40-50cm tall in just 90 days – something that in a field would take up to 18 months – the tree trials could potentially transform the forestry sector and help the UK to meet its net zero targets faster. Vertical farms are more commonly associated with growing herbs, leafy greens, and vegetables but these trials have proved that there is no barrier to successfully growing tree seedlings.
The trials are being run by Forestry & Land Scotland (FLS) in partnership with precision indoor growing technology specialist, Intelligent Growth Solutions (IGS). FLS has already completed five growing trials at the IGS Crop Research Centre, based at the James Hutton Institute in Invergowrie, just outside Dundee.
Species that have successfully been grown at the facility include both conifers, like Norway and Sitka spruce, Douglas fir, Lodgepole, and Scots pine, and broadleaf varieties, including Oak, Alder, Aspen, Rowan, Hazel, and Birch.
ARK supports entrepreneurs, organizations, and communities with sustainable food & energy production systems. By closing the loop and leveraging agile frameworks, they help businesses grow organically and cultivate a consumer-first mindset. Read more here.
Other News:
Other news this week:
Hardeegreens Invests USD 1.3M in Jasper County, South Carolina
CEA Industries CEAD 0.00%↑ Signs Contract with Merida Capital Holdings Client
Localization & Technology Adoption Prevalent To UAE’s Food Security Quest
Panamerican University in México Partners with Verde Compacto
Ashfield Investment Plan May Feature a ‘Community Vertical Farming Initiative’
AgriFORCE AGRI 0.00%↑ Appoints André J. Beaulieu as General Counsel
Ingersoll IR 0.00%↑ Expands Hydroponic Portfolio With Dosatron Acquisition
Upcoming Events:
Fostering the food tech innovation - Warsaw, Poland. Read more here.
Global Vertical Farming Show - GVF 2022 INDIA - 29th & 30th November - New Delhi, India. Read more here.
Introducing Cumulus 2023, An Ecosystem Event Focused on the Future of Food - Read more here.
Asia-Pacific Agri-Food Innovation Summit, Singapore, October 26-28. Learn more here.
Future of Food production Summit, November 15th - 17th 2022, Online. Learn more here.
What Are We Reading This Week?
Taiwan is transforming unused metro stations into underground vertical farms - Euronews.
Vertical Farms And Lab-Grown Beef: Gulf Investors Develop A Taste For ‘Future Foods’ - Forbes.
Hurricane Fiona Pummeled Puerto Rico’s Crops—But Not Those Grown Indoors - Bloomberg.
Impact Justice Launches Program to Train Incarcerated Populations to Become High-Tech Farmers - The Spoon.
How AI and automation can shape the future of farms - E27