Contain Inc Announces Finance Arrangement With Edible Beats For FarmBox Foods Container Farm

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Contain Inc

July 07, 2021

Contain Inc announces a financing agreement arranged between Edible Beats Restaurant Group & a prominent lender for a FarmBox Foods container farm.

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Image courtesy of FarmBox Foods

With the FarmBox Food container, we can grow hyper-local, organic, year-round produce that will be featured at all of our restaurants. We feel this is just the beginning of what we can grow”— Justin Cucci of Edible Beats Restaurant Group

RENO, NV, UNITED STATES, July 7, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Contain Inc is pleased to announce a financing agreement arranged between Edible Beats Restaurant Group and a prominent lender for a controlled-environment container farm, FarmBox Foods. Edible Beats is a locally owned Denver-based restaurant group known for its diverse menus and healthy, plant-based dishes that highlight local and seasonal ingredients. Edible Beats will be able to grow herbs, leafy greens, salad greens, and various produce organically and year-round with the container farm that will be attached to their Vital Root location.

“We have always sought opportunities to be more responsible to the sourcing, growing, and handling of the incredible ingredients that we get,” said Justin Cucci of Edible Beats Restaurant Group. “With the FarmBox Food container, we can grow hyper-local, organic, year-round produce that will be featured at all of our restaurants. We feel this is just the beginning of what we can grow, and we are eager to add the mushroom grow operation in the future”

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Image courtesy of Unsplash

Edible Beats purchased the container from FarmBox Foods, a Colorado-based company that builds automated farms that grow gourmet mushrooms, leafy greens, and culinary herbs. To FarmBox, controlled-environment agriculture is the future, and this deal is one of many leading us towards a more decentralized and eco-friendly food system.

“I think we’re going to see a lot more of these types of programs going forward,” said Chris Michlewicz, Chief Public Relations Officer at FarmBox. “Restaurants are realizing that their produce is fresher and has a longer shelf life when they have a container farm on site. It’s a reliable and sustainable source of food, and it’s more eco-friendly because you no longer have to transport food in from elsewhere.”

Image courtesy of Unsplash

Likewise, Contain Inc is thrilled to support Edible Beats as it ventures into indoor ag. “We're delighted to have assisted SemiMojo and FarmBox Foods in this innovative initiative. Contain is always excited to see more fresh food made available to consumers. Customers appreciate freshness and quality produce, year round. Restaurants and container farms make this possible”, said Doug Harding, Head of Leasing & Vendor Relations at Contain Inc. “We are thrilled to have collaborated with Edible Beets and Farm Box Foods on this project. It aligns perfectly with Contain's mission of supporting the controlled environment agriculture industry in its financing needs”.

The container farm is being built and customized for Edible Beats, and will produce ingredients for all of the EB concepts, Linger, Root Down, Vital Root, El Five, and Ophelais.

About Contain Inc
Contain is out to empower the indoor ag industry of tomorrow. Our first and key mission is bringing easier and faster financing to controlled environment agriculture, but we aren't stopping there. We create platforms to move the industry forward, and most importantly, find ways to make indoor ag more accessible to farmers of all stripes.
Contact Contain:
Doug Harding, Leasing & Vendor Relations
doug@contain.ag | 760-330-1199

About Edible Beats
Edible Beats is a locally owned independent restaurant group that operates such diverse concepts as Linger, Root Down, El Five, Ophelais, and Vital Root. “Walking the walk” is important to us and the various aspects of sustainable & local food sourcing, up-cycled design, and authentic Hospitality.

About FarmBox Foods
FarmBox Foods was founded to help provide a sustainable, eco-friendly food source to places where there is a lack of access to farm-fresh produce. The company’s mission is to use container farms to decentralize the food supply chain and empower local communities.

Doug Harding
Contain Inc
doug@contain.ag
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Can Vertical Farms Be Profitable?

Earlier this year, we covered a couple of indoor farming companies going public through mergers with special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs). Neither seemed very appetizing for retail investors, with negligible revenues to date. As we predicted, more indoor farming startups (referring to both large-scale greenhouses and vertical farming operations) are jumping on the SPAC crazy train. The latest is a Montana company called Local Bounti that had generated little buzz until this month’s announcement, which included news that Cargill is providing $200 million in debt financing in the deal. 

In this article, we want to take a step back and look a little more closely at the indoor farming industry, sometimes referred to as controlled environment agriculture (CEA), particularly on the vertical farming side of things. Basically, we’re skeptical of both the economics and the save-the-world ethos that many companies preach. We enlisted an industry insider to help us separate the wheat from the chaff.

Saving the World from BS

Mark Korzilius

Mark Korzilius is the founder and chief strategy officer of &ever, a vertical farming startup based in Germany, with its first mega-farm located in the desert of Kuwait. Korzilius was also the co-founder in 2002 of a chain of fast-casual Italian restaurants, Vapiano, with more than 200 locations in about 30 countries. He reached out to us, as founders sometimes do after reading a story that didn’t include them, to tell us about all of the cool things their company is doing. In the case of Korzilius, he also wanted to set the record straight on all of the things that competitors like AeroFarms and other indoor vertical farming companies aren’t doing despite claims to the contrary.

Obviously, Mr. Korzilius is biased, but he also confirmed one of our chief suspicions: Many indoor farming companies claim they are on a mission to help feed the world, which seems incongruous with the fact that most are growing leafy greens, herbs, berries, and maybe tomatoes. Hardly the sorts of staples that are going to keep the estimated 800 million people in the world from going hungry at the end of the day. He also argues that claims of automation using artificial intelligence and sensor-rich environments are also overblown.

“We truly believe to become farmers and to be successful farmers for some crops, we can prove that [vertical farming] is, in the end, a way forward,” he says. “Hopefully, we can find some technologies to really overcome some issues that have been created by others … that will help solve problems that have been the result of technologies that have been created 50 years ago.”

In the second half of that comment, Korzilius is obviously referring to the modern industrial farming system, with its reliance on pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers that deplete and poison soils and water supplies. That’s why you see so many companies developing natural fertilizers using microbes or biomanufacturing solutions for non-chemical pesticides. Outdoor agriculture is also water intensive, especially for products like almonds, which require one gallon of water per nut. Various technologies are in development to use water more efficiently, from soil sensors to aerial imagery from drones and satellites. Vertical farming gets at the root of the problem by moving the growing operation indoors, employing LED lights and hydroponics to deliver nutrients using only water rather than soil. That eliminates both pesticides and many traditional fertilizers, and reportedly cuts down on water usage by as much as 95%. Let’s take a look at the specific technology behind Korzilius’ company.

Creating the Right Climate for Vertical Farms

Founded in 2015, &ever (formerly known as Farmers Cut) has raised an undisclosed amount of money, originally through bootstrapping and Seed funding, before raising a Series A from partners in Kuwait for its mega-farm, a joint venture with a local investment company called NOX Management. Korzilius said &ever is currently raising a Series B but declined to offer any details. 

There are two key parts to the company’s technology, as we understand it: Dryponics and climate cells. 

Dryponics is a new riff on hydroponics, which involves growing plants without soil. The company uses a proprietary growth substrate to keep the roots dry. In effect, the root system stays on top of the substrate, while absorbing the nutrients in the water. This setup reportedly has several advantages, including using 68% less water than common hydroponic systems and 37% less water than aeroponic systems, which grow plants in the air using a mist environment or similar system. Less water means the basins underneath the substrates are flatter, allowing more compact layering of crops. 

Each crop requires different growing conditions, Korzilius explains, so his team developed climate cells – microenvironments optimized for temperature, light, humidity, and CO2, among other factors. Controlling the environment also helps control energy costs, especially in the large structures that house many of today’s vertical farms, including the company’s flagship facility in Kuwait. 

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Credit: &ever

“Within the same premises, we can create different climates. In our Kuwait farm, we have four climate cells next to each other. So, we could potentially create California climate next to Denmark climate next to Singapore climate,” he explains. “By creating climate cells within one premise, we save energy [and] only climatize what needs to be climatized.”

Take spinach, a notoriously difficult plant to grow indoors that took the company two years to figure out the right combination of substrate and climate. But that work has paid off by reducing the amount of growth time by 15%, which translates into 18 grow cycles a year, which is good enough for Popeye to be an investor (if only he hadn’t blown his retirement on canned spinach).

Betting the Farm on Indoor Farming

The value proposition is that products from &ever leave the farm as living plants with the roots intact, continuing to grow while staying fresh and retaining maximum freshness, according to Korzilius. The Kuwait farm is the first large-scale effort to prove the business model, though the company also has smaller grow towers for on-site retail locations like grocery stores, including one in Munich. A second mega-farm is in development in Singapore.

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A &ever grow tower. Credit: &ever

The Kuwait farm, which went live shortly before the Rona hit, is designed to grow up to 250 varieties of greens and herbs. The 30,000-square-foot facility can reportedly produce up to 1,200 pounds of  green stuff. Korzilius says the pandemic continues to hinder full-scale operations of the farm, which is overseen by just six employees. However, he claims the vertical farm is profitable from an operations standpoint (in other words, without accounting for the original capital expenditure). “So, we are not selling below cost. Yes, it’s a prototype, but it’s working nicely.” 

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Tasty greens from a vertical farm in Kuwait. Credit: &ever

However, there is a reason why the mega-farm is located in Kuwait and not in Munich or elsewhere in Europe. Energy is simply cheaper in the Middle East, so it was a no-brainer to plug into the grid there. In Singapore, where electricity doesn’t come as cheaply, the local government has stepped in with grant money to subsidize the project. Currently, Singapore imports more than 90% of its food, so the government is motivated to find ways to be more self-sufficient, especially in the wake of the pandemic. 

The bigger implication is that vertical farms will require cheap sources of energy to be economically viable. That goes against the current narrative of locating large-scale operations in the middle of big urban centers where electricity is usually pretty expensive. Of course, there are other economics to consider: Centrally located growing facilities will incur lower shipping costs and can theoretically deliver fresher, tastier products to consumers, who may be willing to pay the premium for what Korzilius calls harvest on demand.

“I strongly believe in consumers being at the center of all activities,” he says. “The consumer, in the end, has to pay for this. And, if he doesn’t, then all of this is just a stupid bubble.”

Conclusion

The bubble is certainly ballooning. The three indoor farming companies that are going (or have gone) public that we are aware of are valued at nearly $4 billion. Last year, the top three indoor farming startups in 2020 funding brought in more than $400 million between them, according to AgFunder News. These companies claim to be building a sustainable food system, but it seems unlikely that a business built on microgreens can be sustainable at that scale and cost. As always, the market will decide which model will succeed. 

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Sowing Season For Vertical Farms

June 29, 2021

Concerns over climate change and food security have fuelled optimism over controlled-environment farming but operators face questions over their forecasts for profitability. Simon Harvey digs into the sector’s prospects.

Growing fresh produce in a controlled indoor environment using technology inputs has, in some cases, been around for almost two decades. But it has only recently started to gain traction linked to climate change and sustainability concerns. However, can it be profitable and competitive?

Indoor or controlled-environment farming is a niche yet expanding sector, but questions have been raised over whether these operations are profitable, and are able to compete with traditional field-grown crops, given the capital-intensive nature of the industry.

Much, however, depends on individual operations, and the objectives in terms of scale – whether it be targeting mass-market consumers or local buyers, the geographical location, etc – whether the farm is in a hot or cold climate, along with the types of crops grown and, most importantly, the technologies employed to replicate the natural environment at the lowest cost possible.

Vertical farming, per se, is the most popular system where crops are grown on stacked units in a warehouse, underground tunnel, or even in shipping containers, requiring artificial lighting, usually through expensive LEDs to mimic sunlight. But some operators, particularly in hot countries such as the Middle East and Asia, are growing crops in high-tech greenhouses using mostly natural light.

Nonetheless, even the companies in those hot climates need LED lighting to supplement the daylight hours, and, generally speaking, all operators within controlled-environment farming are similar in terms of the inputs such as labour, ventilation, irrigation, and cooling. And all require huge capital investment to purchase land, build the farm, put in the appropriate technology, and run it.

Despite the costs, indoor farming is viewed through a longer-term lens to address environmental concerns like the decreasing availability of land, unpredictable weather patterns and climate change, and the limited resources on hand to feed the world’s growing population.

Securing future harvests

Fraser Black, the CEO of UK-based Crop Health and Protection (CHAP), one of the country’s Aagri-tech centres and funded by Innovate UK, a government-backed agency, gives his interpretation of the current landscape.

“I think it is going to be a while before you see millionaires in vertical farming,” Black says. “It's still at that point where you are justifying the costs and developing the market.

"I think there are enough people around now that are breaking even and starting to become profitable, but we are not there yet. Look at electric cars, we are sort of following that same trajectory.”

Controlled-environment farming comes with advantages: less water than regular agriculture and without the need for pesticides, and higher yields linked to year-round production. And, from the consumer perspective, better-quality produce because the nutrient inputs can be controlled, and freshness, because the crops tend to be grown close to source.

For food importers like those in the Middle East and some parts of Asia, the technology offers food security, too.

All those benefits stack up through the eyes of private equity and venture-capital funds, which are ploughing vast sums of money into the sector.

This is no doubt in the hope of reaping profits when indoor farming has reached scale and matured beyond the current leafy greens and herbs – although soft fruits such as strawberries and blueberries, and tomatoes, cucumbers, and mushrooms, are starting to emerge.

I think it is going to be a while before you see millionaires in vertical farming.

Black also addresses the consumer angle and how controlled-environment farming is likely to develop over the coming years.

“The first decades are going to see people getting involved, learning how to do it, and leading the charge, and it will be niche. But, as they learn and as they build, and they learn how to get the costs down, and control the costs, the more mainstream it will become, and then more people pile in and the bigger the scale.

“There are other points of differentiation people are picking up on, which I think will project it forward until such time that the volume is big enough and people recognise all of the benefits that it will become profitable like other systems. 

“Trying to compete with the major growers and put it all in the major supermarkets right now is more difficult because they don't have the volume. But I think those sort of trends are starting to shift.’”

Sky Greens in Singapore is one of the oldest vertical-farming businesses in Asia, founded in 2012 by Jack Ng to grow leafy greens under glasshouses using hydroponic systems and natural light. While Ng points out that labour is the biggest operational cost, he also says that Sky Greens saves money by not employing LEDs, enabling the business to focus on yield and productivity.

“Our energy use is similar to traditional farming, so we can save about 75% on labour,” Ng says. “Our running costs are cheaper than traditional farming, the only thing is the investment cost. Because our output is ten times higher than traditional farming, the investment costs average out.”

He adds: “We have proven in Singapore that we can grow and sell mass-market vegetables. The reason many vertical farms aren't competitive is because they are using artificial lighting, which is a high energy cost, so your payback is high and your overheads are high, plus you have the replacement costs because LED lights only have a two to three-year lifespan.”

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Harvesting time at the Sky Greens farm. Credit: Sky Greens

Ng says that the price of locally-grown crops is important given that Singapore is an import-dependent economy when it comes to food, having to contend with cheap products coming in from Malaysia, Indonesia, and China, but its optimum yield gives Sky Greens the ability to compete.

“Our farm operation is profitable. Using our system, based on studies, the payback is about five years but your crop price has to be at a certain level. Therefore, what we produce is usually the higher-end vegetables like pak choi, which is, in a sense, a smaller market.”

Indicative of the costs, Plenty Unlimited in California, a vertical-farming business set up in 2014, has raised $500m to date from investors as it seeks to scale up production of leafy greens such as lettuce, kale, and rocket, along with tomatoes and strawberries.

Others, like AeroFarms, established in 2004 in New Jersey, and Infarm in Berlin founded in 2013, are turning to special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, to raise funds and gain public listings.

AeroFarms, which grows leafy greens, herbs, blueberries, and raspberries using aeroponic systems, recently entered a SPAC deal with Spring Valley Acquisition Company valued at $1.2bn, which will give the business access to more than $300m in cash to invest.

Infarm is also proposing a SPAC, said to be valued at $1bn, to expand from herbs and greens into chillies, mushrooms, and tomatoes, all grown using hydroponic technology. The company has so far raised around $400m.

Expensive seeds to sow

Nonetheless, the chief executive of Intelligent Growth Solutions (IGS) in Scotland, a tech-firm that designs and patents controlled-environment platforms using artificial intelligence and robotics, with a particular focus on productivity and efficiencies, is critical of the sums being raised relative to the individual revenues generated, and the technologies employed.

IGS CEO David Farquhar says that many of the vertical-farm operators “are still a long way from being profitable”.

“The first important thing is to get our positioning in the market right. There are a lot of very big and noisy companies that have had to raise a huge amount of money because they are trying to reinvent the wheel,” he explains.

“There is no one magic bullet that makes these things economically competitive. It is a combination of about six subsystems. There are two major costs in commercial agriculture in an enclosed environment.

"One is energy and the other one is labour. If you can take the labour out, and we've managed to reduce it by about 80%, that is a major cost-saving and will make you much more economically efficient.”

Farquhar argues that there is no need to have numerous people tending to these farms, as is depicted on many a website, if AI technology and robotics are employed, which reduce costs and ultimately helps with profitability.

He continues: “We give recipes of weather to the AI and the computer does all that work and the mechanical handling system does all that work. Once you have put the seed into the substrate, in the inserts that go into the growth trays, there is really no need for human intervention at all.

“And if you don't put humans in, you are not going to introduce bugs and disease and things, and therefore you don't need to use fungicides and herbicides, whatever. That means you don't need to wash the crop, which means that you are saving more money but also you are going to increase the shelf life by about 50%-100% and you are also going to reduce waste.”

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The IGS ‘Growth Towers’ use a multitude of technologies. Credit: IGS

Dr. Nate Storey, a co-founder of Plenty, says it’s surprising how quickly a vertical farm operator can become profitable, compared to those in field crops, but it’s more difficult for a “company that's raised a couple of hundred million dollars – it takes time for them to grow into that investment than it does for a farm that you just stood up”. 

“Agriculture has historically been a low-margin industry, especially field production. And one thing we want to correct as we move into a new era of agriculture is to make it much more profitable. Having a better margin also makes you more investable. 

“If we can get the flywheel spinning, we can drive costs out of the business faster and pull capital into the business in a way that allows us to expand much more quickly than you could probably imagine today,” Storey suggests.

“We are on a cost curve, more so than some of the other folks in the space, because we have invested very heavily in R&D. That builds our own internal cost curve, which allows us to drive yield up by seven times and costs out by 50% over the course of two years. So we have this kind of crazy economic curve that we get to ride towards higher profitability.”

Storey says that Plenty is competitive with field crops: “I know that's not true for everyone but again, people have some catch up to play. People are just waiting for these external cost curves to drive their costs down.”

Jonathan Webb, the CEO who founded US vertical-farming business AppHarvest in 2017, says that scale is key to profitability.

The company, based in Kentucky, grows a wide range of tomatoes in glass houses and has recently invested $60m to buy artificial intelligence and robotics firm Root AI, which has the technology to predict yields and evaluate crop health.

While Webb admits that one of its farms in the city of Morehead is a user of LED lighting, it mainly uses natural sunlight, and it also recycles rainwater to save on costs.

“If you are just in a warehouse then you can't use sunlight. So, for us, the two free inputs would be sunlight and rainwater. We are only adding in technology when we need it,” Webb says. 

“If you package all that and go at scale, which ends up getting our construction costs down and our operating costs down, we can compete with conventional pricing today. If you are not using sunlight and you are not using rainwater how are you possibly going to compete with conventional crops and keep your costs low? It doesn't make sense.”

Webb adds AppHarvest’s new Morehead facility is going through the ramp-up stage and costs usually level out in year two. “Year three on is where you really start to drive profitability,” he concedes.

“As the industry matures and scales, we are going to see our costs for lighting come down, you'll see costs for steel and glass come down, and then it becomes that self-fulfilling prophecy because, as the industry scales, your material costs are going to be lower and the business models themselves will be fine-tuned to better perform.”

Smart applications of technology

In the Middle East, Pure Harvest is growing tomatoes and strawberries in high-tech glass houses using natural sunlight and only uses LEDs to a small degree because they have more daylight hours and more intense sunlight than other parts of the world.

The business, founded in 2016 in Abu Dhabi, is about to move into leafy greens, with capsicums, cucumbers, and other berry fruits in the pipeline.

Majed Halawi, the vice president for growth at Pure Harvest, says that “it's completely uneconomical” to use artificial lighting, although LEDs are used for “control and steering… but only to supplement the natural light”.

However, Pure Harvest doesn’t use stacked units like vertical-farm operators, and the company is very different in its objective, which is mainly to address food security and reduce the Emirates’ reliance on food imports.

Over the next ten years, our estimation is you will see tens of billions of dollars flood into controlled-environment agriculture.

“Where we compete and where we position ourselves is that we are this local, very high-quality product that is at a discounted price to what comes from Europe and outside of the market,” Halawi explains.

“We have a lot of similarities to a vertical farm in terms of climate management, however, our operating strategy and our set up of the greenhouses and the facilities is different. We find we have a more efficient set-up.

“Vertical farms bank on selling their produce at a very high cost, assuming the customers would pay them a premium for the fact they are grown on a vertical farm.

"However, what we find in this market in the Middle East is it doesn't make any sense to be growing using vertical farms because firstly, the consumer is very price-conscious, so you need to be able to compete with your traditional farms and imports, and, secondly, we have such an abundance of natural light.”

AppHarvest’s Webb believes that controlled-environment farming has a bright future, given the unpredictability of the weather and climate change, and will eventually become a necessity to ensure the long-term supply of fresh produce. As the sector expands and scales, the cost of borrowing is likely to come down too, he says.

“We feel we are really at that tipping point. Over the next ten years, our estimation is you will see tens of billions of dollars flood into controlled-environment agriculture globally, and it's because of the need. You will see scale and you will see profitability immediately because the industry can be profitable if you design the right facility in the right region.”

A Primer On Vertical Farming As The Industry Gains Steam

MAY 28, 2021

RICH ALTERMAN

The modern concept of vertical farming was put forth in 1999 by Columbia University microbiologist Dickson Despommier, who along with his students, came up with a design of a skyscraper farm that could feed 50,000 people.

Since then, vertical farming has become a multi-billion-dollar industry. And it’s growing rapidly.

According to PitchBook data, nearly $1.9 billion of global venture capital was invested in indoor farming in 2020, nearly tripling investment in 2019.  And just this week, New York-based vertical farming startup Bowery Farming raised $300 million in its latest funding round, valuing the company at $2.3 billion.

Vertical farming growth may be accelerating at the ideal time, as concerns about population growth and climate change push the food industry to innovate to meet tomorrow’s challenges.

By 2050, around 68% of the world population is expected to live in urban areas, and this growth will lead to an increased demand for food. The use of vertical farming could play a role in preparing for such a challenge. At the same time, it could help restore forests depleted by commercialized agriculture and curb planet-warming emissions caused by farming and transportation. Agriculture and forestry alone account for about a quarter of the world’s greenhouse gases.

What is it?

Vertical farming is the practice of growing crops in vertically stacked layers as opposed to a single level, like a field or greenhouse.

Through the artificial control of temperature, light, humidity, and gases, food can be produced indoors in a way that optimizes plant growth and soilless farming techniques such as hydroponics, aquaponics, and aeroponics. The benefits of which are reliable, environmentally friendly, year-round crop production, significantly reduced water usage (by some estimates up to 95% less), efficient land use, and less exposure to chemicals and disease.

Among its downsides, vertical farms are costly to set up and operate and are too dependent on technologies that have yet to reach full maturity. Further, with its heavy reliance on electricity for lighting and climate control, it uses more energy than traditional farming methods and contributes to greenhouse gas emissions.

With that, the sector continues to innovate. And with vertical farming merely in its infancy, it’s reasonable to expect big things in the coming decades.

Investors certainly think so.

In fact, the global vertical farming market is projected to reach $12.77 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 24.6%, according to Allied Market Research.

VIDEO: Tortuga Raises $ 20m To Build Hundreds of Harvesting Robots

23-04-2021

Future Farming

Harvest automation start-up Tortuga completed a $ 20 million Series A funding. The money will be used to build hundreds of robots to deploy in 2022.

Last year Tortuga launched a strawberry harvesting robot. This platform is flexible, according to Tortuga it can be adapted to work on other crops like indoor-grown tomatoes or outdoor table grapes.

Picking robots

“For many years, the story behind harvesting robotics has been a lot of promise but really companies have struggled to deliver on that promise for the customer. That’s because this is one of the hardest problems there is to solve,” Eric Adamson, co-founder of Tortuga AgTech told AgFunder News. “Not only are we doing autonomous robotics but we are also doing picking robotics and we are doing them together in really unstructured environments.”

Robots-as-a-service

The $ 20 million in new capital will be used to build hundreds of robots to deploy in 2022. Some of the funding will also go towards building out the operating model and making sure there are enough employees to operate the robot fleets.

Tortuga currently offers its technology through a robots-as-a-service model, getting paid by the kilo for the produce that its robots pick.

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Additional services

“On top of that, as we provide other services that are close to harvest, like data-driven forecasting and other types of cultivation services, those will also be service-based although they may not be quite so specific to a kilogram. We are charging for some of these additional services on a monthly or per-hectare basis,” Adamson told AFN.

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Hugo Claver

Web editor for Future Farming

Why Indoor Farming Funding Is Heating Up

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Jim Giles, GreenBiz.com

23 April 2021

Investment is flowing into the indoor farming and regenerative agricultural sector as businesses seek to bolster yields and curb emissions

The billions of dollars flowing into indoor ag, followed by news of a big announcement in regenerative farming, is yet more evidence of the furious pace of change we're seeing in food production.

On the indoor side, the update comes in the form of details on a big vertical farm that the startup Plenty is building in Compton, California. The plans are impressive:

• The 95,000 square feet facility will be as productive as 700 acres of farmland, according to CNN. In terms of land use, that's more than 200 times as efficient.

• A crop of leafy greens in the facility can go from seedling to harvest in two to three weeks, Plenty co-founder Nate Storey told LAist last year. That's significantly faster than a regular outdoor growing schedule.

• The facility will supply 100 grocery stores when production begins later this year.

This activity is partly the result of a $140m investment Plenty announced last year, just one of a slew of similar deals in the indoor ag sector. Close to $2bn will have been invested in controlled environment agriculture (CEA) between the fourth quarter of 2020 and the middle of this year, estimates David Ceaser, lead agronomist at Agritecture, an indoor ag consulting firm based in Brooklyn. Most of that is going to large automated greenhouses, he adds, but vertical farm companies such as InFarm, Oishii, and AeroFarms also have raised rounds.

"Consumer demand is fueling investment in CEA," Ceaser explained by email. "Consumers want consistent access to clean, high-quality produce, year-round. CEA production provides this and appeals to investors due to consistent revenue streams and reduced risk of interruptions compared to field-based production."   

In addition to using less land, vertical farms require fewer chemical inputs and consume far less water than conventional farms. But remember that these facilities are, to an extent, only as green as the grid they plug into: Studies have shown that using fossil fuels to power vertical farms undermines the other environmental benefits. This isn't really an argument against indoor ag in general, just a reminder that we need to decarbonize our grid as fast as possible. (For more on how that's happening and how your company can get involved, check out GreenBiz Group's new VERGE Electrify event. It runs May 25-26 and is free to attend.)

Another notable deal saw $87m funneled into Gotham Greens, which operates high-tech greenhouses. Some of that will be used to farm lettuce and herbs at a new 10-acre greenhouse in Solano County, California. The facility is co-located with the University of California, Davis, a notable agricultural research hub. Among other things, Gotham will collaborate with Davis scientists on efforts to develop new indoor varieties.

The Solano facility also feels like a statement of intent. Just a few hour’s drive south are the lettuce farms that supply much of the US market. Gotham setting up shop in Solano is like an upstart grocery chain opening in a Walmart parking lot. It signals that the newcomer believes it can take the incumbent on at its own game.

Moving outdoors, the news is that PepsiCo has committed to spreading regenerative practices on seven million acres of US farmland - roughly the size of its entire agricultural footprint - by 2030. I'll state the obvious: seven million acres is a lot of land. To put it in context, it's only two years since General Mills committed to transitioning one million acres to regenerative agriculture, which at the time felt like a step change in the spread of no-till, cover crops and other methods for restoring soil fertility. And the PepsiCo announcement comes just six months after Cargill unveiled plans to implement regenerative practices on 10 million acres. The momentum here is very clear. As well as building soil fertility, these moves potentially could lead to the drawdown of millions of tons of carbon dioxide every year.

This article first appeared at GreenBiz.com

Barton Breeze Launches Bank Guarantee For Hydroponic Farms

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New Delhi | April 21, 2021

TV Jayan

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In an attempt to make hydroponic farming attractive to those interested in farming, Barton Breeze, a Gurugram-based agritech firm, has come up with an assured return plan with a bank guarantee.

“A prospective investor will be able to get an assured annual return of 30 percent on his capital expenditure. We would operate the farm for them and sell the produce for them. If there is a shortfall in this return, the deficit would be paid by banks with whom we have entered into an agreement,” said Shivendra Singh, Founder, and CEO of the commercial hydroponic farming venture, which set up shop in India in 2017 after a successful run in West Asia.

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Singh said the firm has already tied up with the State Bank of India and HDFC Bank for the bank guarantee scheme. Explaining the model further, Singh said not only progressive farmers, but HNIs and corporates would be able to reap benefits from this scheme.

“Hydroponic has several benefits for commercial farms. However, many customers are not completely aware of the environmental and financial contribution of it that makes them skeptical of investing in a hydroponic set-up. Our approach of providing a bank guarantee to B2B customers ensures a risk-free transaction. With this strategic step, we look forward to strengthening our relationship with customers,” said Singh.

“This a bit similar to contract farming, except that in this case, we take care of everything, including running of the farm. Unlike in contract farming where the farmer is having the liability and responsibility of growing the crop, we ensure that the crop is grown properly by being present at the farm on a continuous basis,” Singh told BusinessLine.

According to him, the capital expenditure involved in setting a one-acre hydroponic farm is around ₹1.1 crore, and with the government subsidies, this comes further down to around ₹85 lakh.

To make this attractive for urban dwellers interested in investing in farming, Barton Breeze plans to make it possible to invest as little as ₹5 lakh. He said a bunch of people can together and start a hydroponic farm, which his firm can help set up. There is no need to purchase the land as it can be taken on long lease, say, of 10 to 12 years. “We will ensure that they would get 30 percent or more returns on the investment annually,” said Singh. The bank guarantee will be available to the investors for three years initially, but this can be further renewed.

He said already a few farms are being planned in Delhi-NCR, Kolkata, and Indore in Madhya Pradesh under the bank guarantee scheme.

Singh said his young company has been growing exponentially in the last few years. Starting from a low base, the firm grew by eight times in 2017, six times each in two subsequent years. “Even in 2020, which was hit by Covid-19, we grew by 300 per cent,” he claimed.

Barton Breeze, which introduced hydroponic kits that can be used by city dwellers to grow vegetables in their terraces and balconies in the country a couple of years ago, normally grows off-season vegetables and greens to fetch a better price for their farmer customers.

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iFarm Partners With Contain Inc., Increases Accessibility of Vertical Farms

On February 11th, 2021, iFarm officially became a partner with and an official vendor of Contain Inc., an indoor agriculture fintech platform operating in North America and Europe that connects indoor growers with the resources they need. Growers now have the opportunity to lease iFarm vertical farms through Contain Inc.

Dedicated to securing lease financing for indoor growers, Contain Inc. works with private lenders to facilitate leases and create custom insurance solutions. The company organises financing for all indoor farming needs, including LED, greenhouse equipment, and entire plant growth systems like vertical farms.

Why Lease Financing is Important

Building or equipping a vertical farm can require significant amounts of capital, yet indoor growers typically lack financing options when compared to their outdoor farming counterparts. 75% of indoor growers are looking for funding, and many will not receive it from traditional agriculture banks and traditional business banks as farm lending in the United States declined at an average pace of 2% throughout 2020. While it is slightly easier to seek financing options in Europe, there is still great room for improvement.

By becoming an equipment vendor, iFarm has made its vertical farms more accessible to those who are interested in vertical farming but face the obstacle of high capital investment. Through Contain Inc., indoor growers can now lease iFarm’s vertical farms and LED systems without a need for high investment. By acquiring vertical farming equipment more easily, prospective indoor farmers can also scale their operations more quickly and cost-effectively.

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How It Works

If you would like to start your indoor farming journey with iFarm, but need financial support, simply sign up to Contain Inc.’s exclusive leasing platform and complete a simple application form. The application requires you to input company basics, financial essentials (i.e. what amount is needed for lease), primary equipment to be purchased, and principal financial institutions. The algorithms can match you to a pool of 28 equipment and financial lenders, ranging from small shops to some of the largest banks in the world. The minimum lease size is typically around $75,000 with no upper limit. Contain Inc. will review your application and decide whether you are eligible for financial support.

Contain Inc. also provides a “Leasing Calculator”, which is a short quiz to help growers figure out their odds of obtaining lease financing offers through Contain Inc.

Get in touch with iFarm today to discuss how to invest in or to lease vertical farming technology.

California-Based Greenhouse Grower To Invest $18 Million In Warner Robins, Georgia Indoor Farm

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BY BECKY PURSER

APRIL 08, 2021

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Pete’s, a longtime, California-based greenhouse grower, is expected to invest $18 million in opening their first eastern U.S. indoor agriculture facility in Warner Robins in Peach County, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Thursday. COURTESY PETE'S

WARNER ROBINS

Pete’s, a longtime, California-based greenhouse grower, is expected to invest $18 million in opening their first eastern U.S. indoor agriculture facility in Warner Robins in Peach County, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Thursday.

“Agriculture is our top industry, and Pete’s will bring another game-changing, innovative, and sustainable indoor farming facility to Georgia as we continue to feed the world from the Peach State,” Kemp said in a news release. “Georgia’s No. 1 business climate, top-notch logistics network, and commitment to innovation continue to attract jobs and opportunities for hardworking Georgians, and I thank Pete’s for investing in Peach County and the surrounding region.”

Pete’s is expected to use 24 acres within the county for its indoor growing facility that’s designed to require 90% less land and water than traditional farming.

“The food we put into our bodies has environmental implications,” Pete’s CEO Brian Cook said in a news release. “Our ethos has always been centered around taking care of our team, our local communities, and the environment. Our goal with our new Georgia facility is to expand on our mission, helping to ensure that consumers in the Southeast have access to clean, sustainable greens that are grown close to home.”

The facility will be located in the Robins International Industrial Park, which is located within Peach County.

The development is expected to generate 15 jobs, according to the release.

The company plans to fill a variety of positions including general manager, production, growing, logistics, food safety, and office manager, as well as general administrative roles. To find out how to get hired, visit eatpetes.com for additional information.

“Peach County is thrilled to welcome Pete’s to Middle Georgia,” said B.J. Walker, executive director of the Peach County Development Authority. “This new advanced agricultural project not only brings new jobs and investment into our community but also highlights Peach County as a leader in high-tech, sustainable agriculture.”

The Robins International Industrial Park is designated “Georgia Ready for Accelerated Development” certified site, with “select” status, the release said.

The GRAD Select status is “an indication that a site has met or exceeded more rigorous certification requirements to attract development,” the release said.

Founded in 1970 under the name Hollandia Produce, Pete’s is an employee-owned and operated leader in hydroponically grown living lettuce and cress, according to the release.

Expanding Controlled Environment Agriculture Beyond 'The Big 4'

By PETER TASGAL

March 29, 2021

Greenhouses, vertical farms, and hybrid systems (collectively known as controlled environment agriculture or CEA) continue to attract investment at a much greater scale than in previous decades. In each of the past five years, there have been multiple nine-figure capital raises. Capital has been deployed across farm types:

• Large-scale greenhouses (e.g., AppHarvest, Mastronardi Produce),

• Regional greenhouses (e.g., Gotham Greens, Bright Farms),

• Scaled-vertical farms (e.g., Bowery, AeroFarms), and

• Localized vertical farms (e.g., InFarm – Berlin, Kalera).

Sources of funding have expanded from almost exclusively highly-specialized private equity investors to include public equity, mezzanine debt and even commercial banks. Within these funding sources, the breadth of investors has expanded beyond agriculture-focused investors to more mainstream investors, especially those with an interest in Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) investing. 

More from The Packer: Deep dive on the economics of greenhouse growing

Despite all of the investment, the vast majority of produce grown in CEA’s across North America consists of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and lettuce, and leafy greens (“The Big 4”). Most of the lettuce and leafy greens are coming from CEA’s in the U.S. In Canada, The Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers include 220 members producing tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers on over 3,000 acres of greenhouse.

In my opinion, the next leap for the industry will be expanding the breadth of products. Specifically, focusing on products the taste of which is highly important to the consumer. A strawberry, for example, is a more important purchasing decision to the average consumer compared to lettuce. Lettuce is much more likely to be eaten as part of a salad along with a variety of other ingredients. Today, you can buy at mainstream retail locations a greenhouse-grown strawberry likely grown by Mucci Farms in Ontario or Mastronardi’s Green Empire Farms in New York. 

Consumer demand will continue to drive product expansion. Meeting that demand will be possible through further investment in the CEA space. Although investment has been growing, it has not met the levels of other industries where many billions of dollars have been invested on an annual basis. Investment levels in CEA are likely to become far greater over the near future as some of the largest investors in the world are focused on investments that meet and exceed ESG standards.

More from The Packer: On tour with AeroFarms

Efficient vertical farms and greenhouses meet and exceed ESG standards. The farms are closed-loop systems where everything that goes into the farm is contained and recycled. Additionally, as the environment is fully controlled, only the precise amounts of inputs are added so as to limit excess waste. Lastly, a controlled environment allows for plants to grow without chemicals and pesticides. 

Combining consumers’ desire for more locally-grown produce throughout all seasons of the year with increased investor appetite should drive great growth across the industry for years to come. I believe the biggest leap will be new and exciting products coming from indoor farms. This will all be enhanced with incremental improvements in product taste, farm efficiency, and additional varieties within The Big 4 and other products to come. 

Peter Tasgal is a Boston-area food agriculture consultant focused on controlled environment agriculture.

Invitation To F&A Next 2021: The Impact of Innovation!

While our aim was to physically host the upcoming edition of F&A Next at the Campus of Wageningen University & Research, another virtual summit is today’s reality. Postponing is definitely not an option. Irrespective of Covid-19, a great deal happened in 2020. Investments in global food- and agtech were increased by over 30% to some USD 26 bilion!

F&A Next invites investors, entrepreneurs, and experts to address the next challenges of our sector on Wednesday, 26 May 2021 at the 6th annual F&A Next Summit. We look forward to showcasing the next scaling food and agtech companies. Yes, we‘ll miss meeting you in person, but we’ll make sure that dialing in will be as close as possible to the real thing!

During this year's 3-hour live, virtual summit we will

• bring you up to speed on the Impact of Innovation in the agrifood industry,

• present eight 'Next Heroes in Food- & Agtech', and

• offer you ample opportunity to virtually connect and meet with (other) startups, scale-ups, investors, and corporates in the agrifood space.

GET YOUR EARLY-BIRD TICKET WITH A 25% DISCOUNT
Book your ticket before 12 April to get a 25% discount! Apply the code: FaN@21

Stay safe, stay healthy!

The partners of F&A Next

2021 Theme: "The impact of Innovation"

Get Your eTicket to F&A 2021, 26 May

Food & Ag Innovation only started around 2014 and has definitely gained momentum ever since. in 2020 investments in global food and agtech have risen, irrespective of Covid-19 influences. The pandemic did, however, trigger changes in consumer behavior. Has ‘life as we know it’ irrevocably changed? And what about the much-needed innovation earlier in the value chain?

At F&A Next, Rob Leclerc, founding Partner of Agfunder and Nick Ferreday, Executive Director Food & Agribusiness at Rabobank, will compare notes.

AeroFarms To Go Public in $1.2 Billion Spring Valley SPAC Deal

BY KATHERINE STINSON

APRIL 4, 2021

New Jersey-based company AeroFarms is set to go public in a $1.2 billion Spring Valley SPAC deal. AeroFarms was established in 2004. The company’s goal is to, “Transform agriculture by building and operating environmentally responsible farms throughout the world.”

According to a recent Bloomberg report, AeroFarms will go public in a merger with Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. Thanks to the pending merger, the two companies will have a combined equity value of $1.2 billion. AeroFarms was co-founded by David Rosenberg, Ed Harwood, and Marc Oshima. Rosenberg now serves as the CEO. Harwood is the Chief Science Officer, and Oshima is the Chief Marketing Officer.

AeroFarms: An Explainer

How does AeroFarms achieve its aim of transforming agriculture? The company utilizes a technique called indoor vertical farming. The benefits of indoor vertical farming include reduced space which results in greater productivity per square foot.

AeroFarms says this method makes productivity per square foot 390 times more effective than traditional farming methods.

The indoor vertical farming method also, as AeroFarm purports, results in using 95% less water and zero pesticides. AeroFarms has a smart strategy for keeping plants healthy. This includes a combination of smart aeroponics, light, nutrition, data, substrate, pest management, and scaling.

The AeroFarms method means that the agriculture involved is fully controlled by one entity. This allows AeroFarms complete control over every aspect of greens, herbs, and more that they grow for clients.

From the size, color, shape, and most importantly, the flavor, AeroFarms has complete control. Besides curating custom greens for food clients, AeroFarms also sells their own products at local retailers that are called Dream Greens. According to AeroFarms, Dream Greens are grown on indoor vertical AeroFarms locations in New Jersey. They are organic, pesticide-free, and non-GMO.

Potential clients can choose to use AeroFarms’ food service. The benefits of their customized food service includes year-round availability, a longer shelf life, consistent pricing, no weather interruptions, heirloom greens varieties and more.

More About AeroFarms

The AeroFarms technology was named one of TIME’S best food and drink inventions of 2019. Some of AeroFarms other financial partners include Ikea, Prudential, and Goldman Sachs. Rosenberg, who is also the CEO of AeroFarms said this about the upcoming merger and initial public offering via a Business Wire report.

“At AeroFarms, our mission is to grow the best plants possible for the betterment of humanity, and we are executing on this by taking agriculture to new heights with the latest in technology, innovation and understanding of plant science. Our technology empowers our operations – this is how we get closer to where the problems, opportunities, and solutions are. We also have the capabilities to innovate fast by turning our crops a typical 26 times per year that allows us to continuously learn and improve yield and quality while simultaneously reducing capital and operating costs.”

After the merger is completed and closed, AeroFarms will be publicly traded on Nasdaq under the ticker ARFM. The official date for the AeroFarms IPO has yet to be confirmed.

Published in Business and News

Katherine Stinson

Katherine Stinson is an award-winning journalist and Staff Reporter at Grit Daily News, where she covers Texas and Southern states' startup and entrepreneurship news. Based in San Antonio, Texas, she also contributes to ScreenRant, Outlander TV News, and San Antonio Magazine.

More posts from Katherine Stinson

Founders Future: A New Fund For Impact Startups

The Fund's Particularly Interested In

Vertical Farming, Circular Economy,

Mobility, And Alternative Packaging.

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BY FREYA PRATTY

 15 FEBRUARY 2021

Founders Future, a French investment firm for European startups, is launching a new fund focused on supporting the next generation of impact-driven entrepreneurs.

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MARC MENASÉ

Founding partner

The fund is the firm’s second and will focus on seed and Series A investments. It’s targeting a close of €50m and has raised €20m of that so far. Most of the money has come from angel investors, including Thierry Gillier, the founder of clothing brand Zadig and Voltaire; Bris and Yves Rocher, from the French cosmetics brand Rocher; and Michael Benabou.

The fund’s primary goal is finding impact-driven startups that show transformative potential, explains serial French tech entrepreneur Marc Menasé, who started Founders Future.

“Impact is everything now,” he says. “The consumer now wants to buy products that are more respectful across many criteria, and employees want to work for companies that take into account their impact on the planet and other ESG criteria.”

Founders Future is particularly interested in finding startups working on vertical farming, last-mile delivery, mental health, mobility, cleaner alternatives to packaging, and those working on the circular economy.

It’s a slightly different focus to the firm’s first fund, which looked to invest in the future of work, the future of banking, and the future of health. This included investments into French fintechs Lydia, Alma, October, and Memo Bank. 

The food industry

Within the sectors Founders Future is now looking to fund, Menasé is particularly excited by startups looking to transform the food industry. 

“I came to impact investing through the food transition,” he says, “and I’m super keen to fund projects in the food transition, I really have this in the gut — not meaning to make a joke there.”  

One of the companies Menasé founded himself is Epicery, a delivery service for fresh grocery products, and he’s made investments in dark kitchen company Taster and Yuka, an app that tells you what’s in your food. 

Founders Future also has a ‘venture studio’ within it to build new companies. The latest being created is focused on food — dietary supplement company Epycure. 

Analyzing impact

Within its straight investment arm, Founders Future has developed a “highly structured way to invest”, Menasé says. 

“We have new software called Zei which we use to assess businesses. Along with the founders, we plug in all the information we have about a startup and then we can share their impact trajectory, highlighting areas they need to improve on.”

The software could highlight that a company needs to change to a renewable energy supplier for its manufacturing process, for example, and that would be set as a target for a quarter. 

“We want to back products that will make the 21st-century cleaner,” Menasé says. “Tech has incredible leverage in that and there’s a great younger generation of mission-driven entrepreneurs, we see real ambition for income in this group.”

Freya Pratty is Sifted’s news reporter. She tweets from @FPratty

AeroFarms, The World Leader In Indoor Vertical Farming, To Become Publicly Traded Company Through Combination With Spring Valley Acquisition Corp

March 26, 2021

NEWARK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AeroFarms, a certified B Corporation, and leader in vertical farming, announced today it has entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger (the “Merger Agreement”) with Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: SV) (“Spring Valley”), a special purpose acquisition company. Upon closing of the transaction, AeroFarms will become publicly traded on Nasdaq under the new ticker symbol "ARFM". The combined company will be led by David Rosenberg, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of AeroFarms.

Founded in 2004, AeroFarms is widely recognized as the world leader in vertical farming. As a certified B Corporation and public benefit corporation since 2017, AeroFarms is on a mission to grow the best plants possible for the betterment of humanity. Through its innovative growing platform, AeroFarms helps solve issues brought on by macro challenges such as population growth, water scarcity, arable land loss, health consciousness, and supply chain risks like the COVID-19 pandemic. AeroFarms has developed patented and award-winning technology in areas such as plant biology, mechanical design, environmental control, data science, operations, and plant genetics.

Through the integration of these disciplines, AeroFarms achieves up to 390 times greater productivity per square foot annually versus traditional field farming while using up to 95% less water and zero pesticides. With over 250 invention disclosures and a vast library of data collected over 15 years of operations, AeroFarms is continually improving its systems to understand plants at unprecedented levels and solve agriculture-related supply chain issues. Today, AeroFarms sells great-tasting leafy greens products under its Dream Greens brand, which is consistently celebrated by top chefs and tastemakers.

AeroFarms’ Investment Highlights

• AeroFarms is revolutionizing agriculture and has been innovating vertical farming for 15 years.

• $1.9 trillion total addressable market opportunity within its core leafy greens market and other adjacencies.

• Proprietary technology and industry leadership with proven innovation and design evolution through five generations of farm models supported by an experienced team and a robust portfolio of over 250 invention disclosures.

• Data science-driven and fully-controlled technology platform enables AeroFarms to better understand plants and optimize farms while improving quality and reducing costs.

• Commercially selling leafy greens with a brand that is already winning at retail, providing customers with a premium product with superior quality, flavor, taste, and texture.

• Grown over 550 varieties of produce to date and working with key strategic partners to use its growing platform to address broader problems in agriculture.

• Strong projected financial performance driven by demonstrated farm key performance indicators (KPIs) and an accelerated farm rollout schedule.

Management Commentary

Chris Sorrells, CEO of Spring Valley, said, “Our goal was to partner with an industry-leading, best-in-class, sustainability-focused company and we are ecstatic to combine forces with AeroFarms, the market leader in vertical farming, to accomplish this vision. AeroFarms has a technological edge on the industry, developing a world-class innovation team that has fueled a robust and growing intellectual property portfolio of patents and trade secrets. Moreover, their team has been selling commercial product with major retailers, building a trusted brand that is performing well, and developing influential partnerships that will enhance their ability to scale this business quickly. The future is very bright for AeroFarms and we are excited to share this highly compelling ESG investment opportunity by bringing the market leader in the vertical farming industry public.”

David Rosenberg, Co-Founder, and CEO of AeroFarms, added, “At AeroFarms, our mission is to grow the best plants possible for the betterment of humanity, and we are executing on this by taking agriculture to new heights with the latest in technology, innovation, and understanding of plant science. Our technology empowers our operations – this is how we get closer to where the problems, opportunities, and solutions are. We also have the capabilities to innovate fast by turning our crops a typical 26 times per year that allows us to continuously learn and improve yield and quality while simultaneously reducing capital and operating costs. Our business is at an inflection point where we will scale up our proven operational framework and begin our expansion plans in earnest. With the support of Spring Valley, we not only have the capital in place to execute our plan, but also a sponsor who shares the same ESG philosophies to make a positive impact on the world, while serving the interests of our shareholders.”

Transaction Overview

Under the terms of the Merger Agreement, the transaction is valued at a fully diluted pro forma equity value of approximately $1.2 billion assuming no redemptions by Spring Valley shareholders. The PIPE offering was anchored by leading institutional investors, AeroFarms insiders, and Pearl Energy Investments, the sponsor of Spring Valley. The transaction will provide approximately $317 million of unrestricted cash at close to fund future farm development and general corporate purposes.

The transaction has been unanimously approved by the Board of Directors of Spring Valley, as well as the Board of Directors of AeroFarms, and is subject to satisfaction of closing conditions, including the approval of the shareholders of Spring Valley.

Upon completion of the proposed transaction, AeroFarms expects to nominate two of Spring Valley’s existing directors, Debora Frodl and Patrick Wood, III, to its Board of Directors. The remaining directors and officers of Spring Valley are expected to resign and be replaced with AeroFarms nominees, which will be named at a future date.

Additional information about the proposed transaction, including a copy of the Merger Agreement and investor presentation, will be provided in a Current Report on Form 8-K to be filed by Spring Valley with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") and is available on the AeroFarms investor relations page at https://aerofarms.com/investors and at www.sec.gov.

Advisors

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC is acting as exclusive financial advisor to AeroFarms. Cowen is acting as a financial advisor to Spring Valley. Cowen and Wells Fargo Securities are acting as capital markets advisors to Spring Valley. J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Cowen, and Wells Fargo Securities acted as placement agents to Spring Valley in connection with the PIPE offering.

DLA Piper LLP (US) is acting as legal counsel to AeroFarms, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP is acting as legal counsel to the placement agents and Kirkland & Ellis LLP is acting as legal counsel to Spring Valley.

Webcast Information

Spring Valley and AeroFarms management will host a webcast to discuss the proposed transaction on March 26, 2021, at 8:00 a.m. ET. Hosting the call will be Chris Sorrells, CEO of Spring Valley; David Rosenberg, Co-Founder and CEO of AeroFarms; and Guy Blanchard, CFO of AeroFarms.

To listen to the prepared remarks via telephone, dial 1-877-407-0784 (U.S.) or 1-201-689-8560 (international) and an operator will assist you, or via webcast which can be found on AeroFarms’ investor relations website at https://aerofarms.com/investors. A telephone replay will be available through April 9, 2021, at 11:59 p.m. ET by using 1-844-512-2921 (U.S.) or 1-412-317-6671 (international) and pin number: 13718018.

About Spring Valley Acquisition Corp.

Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. is a blank check company formed for the purpose of entering into a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses or entities. While Spring Valley may pursue an initial business combination target in any business or industry, it is targeting companies focusing on sustainability, including clean energy and storage, smart grid/efficiency, environmental services and recycling, mobility, water and wastewater management, advanced materials and technology-enabled services. Spring Valley’s sponsor is supported by Pearl Energy Investment Management, LLC, a Dallas, Texas-based investment firm that focuses on partnering with best-in-class management teams to invest in the North American energy industry.

About AeroFarms

Since 2004, AeroFarms, through its holding company, Dream Holdings, Inc., has been leading the way for indoor vertical farming and championing transformational innovation for agriculture. On a mission to grow the best plants possible for the betterment of humanity, AeroFarms is a Certified B Corporation with global headquarters in Newark, New Jersey, United States. Named one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company two years in a row and one of TIME’s Best Inventions, AeroFarms’ patented, award-winning indoor vertical farming technology provides the perfect conditions for healthy plants to thrive, taking agriculture to a new level of precision, food safety and productivity while using up to 95% less water and no pesticides versus traditional field farming. AeroFarms enables local production to safely grow all year round for its commercial retail brand Dream Greens that has peak flavor always®. In addition, AeroFarms has developed multi-year strategic partnerships ranging from government to major Fortune 500 companies to help uniquely solve agriculture supply chain needs.

For additional information, visit: https://aerofarms.com/.

SEC Filing

Additional Information and Where to Find It

In connection with the business combination, Spring Valley intends to file a Registration Statement on Form S-4 (the “Form S-4”) with the SEC which will include a preliminary prospectus with respect to its securities to be issued in connection with the business combination and a preliminary proxy statement with respect to Spring Valley’s stockholder meeting at which Spring Valley’s stockholders will be asked to vote on the proposed business combination. Spring Valley and AeroFarms urge investors, stockholders, and other interested persons to read, when available, the Form S-4, including the proxy statement/prospectus, any amendments thereto and any other documents filed with the SEC, because these documents will contain important information about the proposed business combination. After the Form S-4 has been filed and declared effective, Spring Valley will mail the definitive proxy statement/prospectus to stockholders of Spring Valley as of a record date to be established for voting on the business combination. Spring Valley stockholders will also be able to obtain a copy of such documents, without charge, by directing a request to: Spring Valley Acquisition Corp., 2100 McKinney Avenue Suite 1675 Dallas, TX 75201; e-mail: investors@sv-ac.com. These documents, once available, can also be obtained, without charge, at the SEC’s website www.sec.gov.

Participants in the Solicitation

Spring Valley and its directors and officers may be deemed participants in the solicitation of proxies of Spring Valley’s shareholders in connection with the proposed business combination. Security holders may obtain more detailed information regarding the names, affiliations and interests of certain of Spring Valley’s executive officers and directors in the solicitation by reading Spring Valley’s final prospectus filed with the SEC on November 25, 2020, the proxy statement/prospectus and other relevant materials filed with the SEC in connection with the business combination when they become available. Information concerning the interests of Spring Valley’s participants in the solicitation, which may, in some cases, be different than those of their stockholders generally, will be set forth in the proxy statement/prospectus relating to the business combination when it becomes available.

No Offer or Solicitation

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy, or the solicitation of any vote or approval in any jurisdiction in connection with a proposed potential business combination among Spring Valley and AeroFarms or any related transactions, nor shall there be any sale, issuance or transfer of securities in any jurisdiction where, or to any person to whom, such offer, solicitation or sale may be unlawful. Any offering of securities or solicitation of votes regarding the proposed transaction will be made only by means of a proxy statement/prospectus that complies with applicable rules and regulations promulgated under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or pursuant to an exemption from the Securities Act or in a transaction not subject to the registration requirements of the Securities Act.

Forward Looking Statements

Certain statements included in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements generally are accompanied by words such as “believe,” “may,” “will,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “expect,” “should,” “would,” “plan,” “predict,” “potential,” “seem,” “seek,” “future,” “outlook,” and similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. All statements, other than statements of present or historical fact included in this press release, regarding Spring Valley’s proposed acquisition of AeroFarms, Spring Valley’s ability to consummate the transaction, the benefits of the transaction and the combined company’s future financial performance, as well as the combined company’s strategy, future operations, estimated financial position, estimated revenues and losses, projected costs, prospects, plans and objectives of management are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on various assumptions, whether or not identified in this press release, and on the current expectations of the respective management of AeroFarms and Spring Valley and are not predictions of actual performance. These forward-looking statements are provided for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to serve as, and must not be relied on as, a guarantee, an assurance, a prediction, or a definitive statement of fact or probability. Actual events and circumstances are difficult or impossible to predict and will differ from assumptions. Many actual events and circumstances are beyond the control of AeroFarms and Spring Valley. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including changes in domestic and foreign business, market, financial, political, and legal conditions; the inability of the parties to successfully or timely consummate the proposed transaction, including the risk that any regulatory approvals are not obtained, are delayed or are subject to unanticipated conditions that could adversely affect the combined company or the expected benefits of the proposed transaction or that the approval of the stockholders of Spring Valley or AeroFarms is not obtained; failure to realize the anticipated benefits of the proposed transaction; risks relating to the uncertainty of the projected financial information with respect to AeroFarms; risks related to the expansion of AeroFarms’ business and the timing of expected business milestones; the effects of competition on AeroFarms’ business; the ability of Spring Valley or AeroFarms to issue equity or equity-linked securities or obtain debt financing in connection with the proposed transaction or in the future, and those factors discussed in Spring Valley’s final prospectus dated November 25, 2020 under the heading “Risk Factors,” and other documents Spring Valley has filed, or will file, with the SEC. If any of these risks materialize or our assumptions prove incorrect, actual results could differ materially from the results implied by these forward-looking statements. There may be additional risks that neither Spring Valley nor AeroFarms presently know, or that Spring Valley nor AeroFarms currently believe are immaterial, that could also cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. In addition, forward-looking statements reflect Spring Valley’s and AeroFarms’ expectations, plans, or forecasts of future events and views as of the date of this press release. Spring Valley and AeroFarms anticipate that subsequent events and developments will cause Spring Valley’s and AeroFarms’ assessments to change. However, while Spring Valley and AeroFarms may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, Spring Valley and AeroFarms specifically disclaim any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing Spring Valley’s and AeroFarms’ assessments of any date subsequent to the date of this press release. Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed upon the forward-looking statements.

Related articles: The Spoon - Cheddar - Go Dan River - Food Dive

Contacts

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Spring Valley Acquisition Corp.
www.sv-ac.com
Robert Kaplan
Investors@sv-ac.com

Investor Relations:
Jeff Sonnek
ICR
Jeff.Sonnek@icrinc.com
1-646-277-1263

Media Relations:
Marc Oshima
AeroFarms
MarcOshima@AeroFarms.com
1-917-673-4602

Fashion Giant Makes Foray Into Leafy Greens

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Y CHRIS KOMOREK

@ckfruitnet

25th March 2021, London

New Investment In Vertical Farming Company Ljusgårda AB

Comes From Platform Owned By Chairman of H&M

The investment platform owned by H&M chairman, Karl Johan Persson, has invested in Ljusgårda AB, the Swedish vertical farming business based in Tibro.

Reports published by HortNews indicate the vertical farming company is backed by a number of investors, including Philian, which is the investment platform owned by Persson.

Ljusgårda, which produces crispy bagged salads, is planning to use the new investment to expand its production area in order to produce more products.

“We will grow from a cultivation area of 300m2 to 2,500m2, and thus from cultivating two tonnes a month to 60 tonnes when the factory is in full swing after the summer,” Ljusgårda marketing manager Maria Hillerström told reporters. “We will expand with more products this spring.”

Ljusgårda’s chief executive, Andreas Wilhelmsson, added the company is ambitious to expand. “We are looking at a number of possible new locations. As our first factory will soon start producing, it’s time to start financing the growth plans.

“The interest is huge out there. On the one hand, we are joining the sustainability trend, food-tech is starting to become very popular at the same time as this type of company out in the countryside where we are is not so common.”

Lead Image credit: Hort News

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OurCrowd, Waterfund Launch New Water Investment Platform

Waterfund committed $50 million of capital to the OurCrowd managed portfolio, with an initial investment completed in Plenty, Inc., a vertical farming leader.

By ZEV STUB MARCH 22, 2021

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Future Crops will set up a farm to grow vertical agriculture in the UAE. (photo credit: Courtesy)

OurCrowd and Waterfund said Monday they will build a dedicated investment portfolio of 15 leading water and agricultural technology companies. Waterfund committed $50 million of capital to the OurCrowd managed portfolio, with an initial investment completed in Plenty, Inc., a vertical farming leader.

The companies also announced that they are jointly working on a water-focused financial product platform called Aquantos, which they said will "pioneer the issuance of Blue Bonds and other innovative water investment products." “We are working to issue Blue Bonds that can be both climate bonds-certified and backed by sovereign or sub-sovereign borrowers," said Scott Rickards, CEO of Waterfund.

"This new financial tool and others are being designed to enable water projects in the Middle East to acquire leading technologies to address water scarcity in a fundamentally new way.” Sustainable investing assets now total more than $30 trillion globally, with 34% growth over the past two years, According to Morgan Stanley research cited by the companies. In the United States alone, $12 trillion is sustainably invested, they added.“In 2016, the Paris Agreement heightened interest in green bonds; in the years since, we’ve seen a spike in companies, municipalities, sovereigns, and banks issuing green bonds.

We expect that demand for next-generation water-oriented bond products will see similar growth,” Rickards said. “The Abraham Accords present a huge opportunity to bring new water and agricultural technology to the water scarcity challenges of the entire Middle East," said Jon Medved, Founder & CEO of OurCrowd. "Alongside Waterfund, it is our mission to invest in and help build game-changing technology companies. We are excited to be working together with Waterfund to drive more private capital to address the critical challenges of water."

FRANCE: Jungle Says It’s Cracked How To Make Vertical Farms Profitable

“No Matter How Good Your Product Is,

If The Price Is Higher Than The Alternative,

Then You’re Dead.”

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BY FREYA PRATTY

 22 MARCH 2021

Jungle, a French vertical farming company that says it can produce ten to 30 times more food than traditional greenhouses, has raised €42m in new funding. 

The company also says its focus on large-scale farms will help it overcome one of the biggest challenges facing vertical farming: how to make a profit.

Jungle’s new funding, €7m of which is in equity and €35m of which is debt financing, comes from Founders Future, a French investment firm focused on impact startups. Jungle is the firm’s first investment.

The company’s funding comes as the wider industry continues to grow fast. It was worth $2.2bn in 2018 but is expected to reach $12.8bn by 2026. Investor appetite is clearly there: vertical farming giant Infarm raised $170m at the end of last year. 

Jungle is building a 5,500m2 farm 80km from Paris, where crops will grow on stacked platforms. The site is already partly operational and the company has secured contracts with French supermarkets Monoprix and Intermarche. 

At present, it’s growing a mixture of aromatic herbs, greens and, unlike other vertical farms, flowers. It’ll be fully operational by the end of 2021.

Less pesticides, more local and a greater yield

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Gilles Dreyfus, cofounder of Jungle.

“We don’t claim to be instigating a revolution, we are part of an equation that wants to be a solution,” explains Gilles Dreyfus, who cofounded Jungle in 2015. 

For Dreyfus, vertical farming has several advantages. Crops can be grown close to cities, where the majority of consumers are, thereby reducing the environmental costs of transit. 

Plants can also be grown on more frequent cycles than on traditional farms because they’re not seasonally dependent, and they’re also grown without using pesticides. 

“Our most popular product, Green Basil, gives 14 harvests a year in the vertical farm, compared to 3 or 4 in the South of France, where the crop grows best outdoors.” 

National food sovereignty

Being able to grow crops out of season means vertical farming can help countries achieve better food sovereignty, Dreyfus says.

“We have to go further and further from the country to get crops when they’re out of season,” he says. “Brexit import taxes on food have shown the complicated situations this can lead to.”

“If the price is higher, you’re dead”

Despite the benefits, vertical farming has often struggled with how to make a profit. “Having a viable financial model and an efficient farm is the main hurdle for vertical farming,” Dreyfus says.

“No matter how good your product is, if the price is higher than the alternative, then you’re dead.”

The company believes that bigger farms is the answer.  

German company Infarm, which is aiming at profitability by 2023, places microunits into supermarkets. Jungle, which is aiming at profitability in 18 months time, will focus on large-scale production facilities that then supply a whole area.

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“Price depends on scale and we’re not aiming for small-scale farms, we’re aiming for less farms but a lot bigger. If you activate the economies of scale you can get a very reasonable product,” he says.

The company’s aiming to sell food at 5% more than the cost of conventional alternatives, but at 20% less than organic foods grown on farms. 

For Valentine Baudouin, partner at Founders Future which has invested in Jungle, the focus on large-scale farms is the key to profitability, and what makes Jungle stand out. 

“They’ve answered the economic question of vertical farming, which is very important because you have many similar enterprises that haven’t done so.”

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Jungle’s vertical farm warehouse.

Beyond salad?

A criticism often leveled at the vertical farming industry is whether it can grow beyond just salad leaves and herbs. 

Unlike other farms, Jungle also grows flowers for the perfume industry, but Dreyfus says the other crops its working on, including cherry tomatoes and mushrooms, won’t be in supermarkets until 2023.

“You can grow virtually anything you want, except truffles — which is a real shame actually,” says Dreyfus. “But the question shouldn’t be, can we grow it, it should be, do we have the financial model to make it work?”

Jungle’s currently got a team of 25 people based in France, but will use the new funding to double its workforce by 2022. It also plans to open two new large-scale farms in France, including one in the south that’ll be twice as big as its first site. 

Freya Pratty is Sifted’s news reporter. She tweets from @FPratty

March Indoor Ag Science Cafe - March 30th Tuesday 11 AM Eastern US Time

This month's Café Will Introduce A Funding Opportunity

For Small Businesses‘ R&D.

Please sign up, thank you! 

"USDA SBIR Grants Program Overview"

Dr. Steven Thomson & Melinda Coffman
USDA NIFA

SBIR = Small Business Innovation Research

• Please sign up so that you will receive Zoom link info.

• Indoor Ag Science Cafe is an open discussion forum, planned and organized by OptimIA project team supported by USDA SCRI grants.

Sign up here

Polygreens Podcast Episode: 17 - Nicola Kerslake - Contain Inc.

Nicola Kerslake founded Contain Inc, a fintech platform for indoor agriculture, that aids indoor farmers in finding lease funding for their projects. They're backed by Techstars' Farm to Fork program, funded by Cargill and Ecolab.

Latest Episode

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Orlando Ag-Tech Firm Kalera Lands Investment For More Growth

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By Alex Soderstrom

Staff Writer, Orlando Business Journal

March 9, 2021

One of the newest investors fueling growth at indoor farming company Kalera Inc. once was the U.S. agriculture industry's top government official.

The Orlando-based firm on Feb. 24 completed a private placement, a sale of shares to pre-selected investors and firms, that raised the company $31 million, according to financial documents. Among Kalera's latest investors is Sonny Perdue, U.S. secretary of agriculture from 2017-2021 and governor of Georgia from 2003-2011, who will join the firm's board of directors.

This is another big investment round for Kalera, which last year raised $150 million in capital. These funds help the company as it rapidly opens indoor produce growing facilities across the U.S. and eyes international expansion.

Acquisition, expansion

The investment funds Kalera's purchase of vertical farm seed developer Vindara Inc., according to documents. The seeds made by the Durham, North Carolina-based firm will increase output, improve energy efficiency and expand the product pipeline at Kalera, the company announced Feb. 24.

To see inside Kalera's HyCube in Orlando, check out the slideshow above.

Meanwhile, Kalera is expanding to six new cities in 2021 and will add employees to its corporate headquarters in Orlando this year, CEO Daniel Malechuk previously told OBJ. The company has eight open Orlando jobs listed on its website.

The company employs about 75 people, mostly in Central Florida, and will grow its workforce to more than 300 companywide by the end of 2021, Malechuk added.

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Daniel Malechuk | JIM CARCHIDI

'Leading the pack'

The purchase of Vindara was the latest step in Kalera’s rapid expansion since it was founded in 2010. Kalera’s vertical agriculture facilities grow quality-controlled produce year-round. The company operates two facilities in Orlando, and this year will open growing facilities in Atlanta, Denver, Houston, Honolulu, Seattle, and Columbus, Ohio.

The global vertical farming industry has big potential, and it’s expected to be worth nearly $12.8 billion by 2026, according to industry analysis site Report Buyer. Kalera stands out within the lucrative industry, Perdue said in a prepared statement.

“Kalera is leading the pack in a booming vertical farming industry ... Through my travels, I’ve had the opportunity to experience many intriguing ideas in food and agricultural innovation and technology. In my opinion, Kalera captures the intersection of technology and sustainable food production better than anything I have seen."

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Sonny Perdue | BYRON E. SMALL