Indoor AgTech

349 powerful leaders across CEA and vertical farming gathered at the #IndoorAgTech Innovation Summit in Chicago. Commitments were made across the sector to build profitable farms, invest in start-ups, redefine food security, provide non-dilutive funding and explore a variety of soft fruits and mushrooms. Browse the full summit highlights and gallery here: https://bit.ly/3XT4ywR Thanks to our partners: Vertical Future, Certhon, Skytree, Commonwealth of Virginia, Dalsem - Complete Greenhouse Projects, GoodLeaf Farms, Hoogendoorn Growth Management, Innovative Growers Equipment, IUNU, JASA Packaging Solutions, Philips Lighting, Sollum Technologies, Vertical Harvest Farms, AdeptAg, Bosman Van Zaal, Concert Bio, Dramm Corporation, Flier Systems, Grow-tec, ISO, KAPPA AgTech, LUBING, Matrix Sciences, MONTEL, Profile Products, Thrive Agritech, TTA, UrbanKisaan, Viscon Group, Zayndu Ltd

Liberty University has introduced a new micro-farm, allowing students to observe fresh herbs and microgreens growing within the university’s dining hall. The Babylon Micro-Farm will produce herbs, lettuce and microgreens for campus events like chef-led cooking classes and high-end catering. Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/3TwFDw1

Dorn Wenninger has been appointed as an advisor for Gardin Agritech “Dorn brings a life- time of experiences and connections to the most important grower/shippers, breeders and produce retailers around the world. We're excited to add Dorn's deep industry knowledge and relationships to the Gardin team as we ramp up our global penetration” says Sumanta Talukdar, CEO of Gardin. Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/3X8piyn

iFarm has begun construction of Hygrow Farms’ vertical farm with its technologies in Switzerland. The farm will utilize iFarm StackGrow technology, a fully automated system with mobile trays for growing plants on vertical farms. Compared to semi-automated vertical farms, this technology increases plant density by 67% and doubles monthly yield and revenue. Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/4dzeUGG

Is vertical farming the future of food production? Tristan Fischer, Founder of Fischer Farms Ltd, said he believed the system could "provide a significant amount of food stability around the world". Fischer Farm's four acre Food Enterprise Park unit produces the same amount of food as a traditional 1,000 acre farm, according to the company. Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/3zS414d

Plenty® teams up with Mawarid Holding Investment in a $680 million deal to develop a network of indoor farms in the Middle East. The joint venture plans to build five farms in the region over the next five years and aims to produce 4.5 million pounds of premium strawberries for local consumption and export within Gulf Cooperation Council member countries. Read more at: https://lnkd.in/gmefz6WD Congrats Arama Kukutai and Kashif Shamsi!

Former #IndoorAgTech start-up alumni Ceragen has raised $2 million to expand its operations and develop its technology in different countries: https://lnkd.in/ewUH8xjx It develops soil microbes that help with the growth of fruit and vegetables grown in greenhouses. CEO, Danielle Rose says: "Greenhouses are incredibly efficient. By figuring out which soil microbes can live in a water-based environment, and which ones help each plant type, we are able to help growers produce more food with the same amount of resources."

Those who attended the “Scaling CEA: Funding Models and Partnerships for Nationwide Expansion” panel at Indoor AgTech Innovation Summit on June 24th heard valuable insight on how CEA companies need to navigate the challenging financing landscape to be able to fund new indoor farms. I was privileged to moderate this panel featuring Elan Kramer, Generate; Marc Khouzami, BMO Sustainable Fund; and Sue Yang-Krochmal, Antin Infrastructure Partners. The panelists’ investing strategies offer different funding vehicles, ranging from infrastructure, growth / PE, and project finance. To date, too much corporate equity has been raised by CEA companies, a strategy that is not viable in the future, as hard assets, including indoor farms, should not be funded with corporate equity, which is much more costly than other forms of capital (bank debt, mezzanine, project finance). The challenges the CEA sector faces today are mostly due to raising too much capital at too high valuations, and not executing on business plans. The keys to success are to prioritize building a viable business and achieving positive EBITDA and cash flow. We also discussed the need for stronger relationships with strategic partners, including signing offtake agreements with distributors or retailers. Elan discussed how Generate provided project equity for Better Future Farms and brought Taylor Farms in for the product offtake.  Sue shared how Antin had looked at both the greenhouse and vertical farming sectors, but didn’t find many suitable targets as an infrastructure investor as so few companies are close to profitability. Marc provided insight on how the sector had changed since investing in Gotham Greens a few years ago as well as future opportunities for consolidation. As to the future of the CEA sector, all the panelists had a positive long-term view, but many short-term concerns, particularly as more companies are expected to go bankrupt over the next couple of years. Adam Greenberg Arama Kukutai Barry Murchie Dorn Wenninger Gilwoo Lee Jed Lynch Michael Rose Nick Houshower Nona Yehia Paul Sellew Matthew Lohr Randall Lewis, CPA Rob Dongoski Stephan Dolezalek Tobias Peggs Viraj Puri #indoorag #indoorfarming #verticalfarming #cea #foodsecurity #foodtech #food #sustainability #sustainable #sustainableag #sustainabledevelopment #climatechange #cleantech #climate #agtech #agriculture #farming #foodindustry #technology #innovation #investment #finance

Last week, our CCO Abby Craig Prior, spoke at Indoor AgTech about the success that indoor grown salads have been having in the market despite the headwinds faced in the investor community. She discussed the strong consumer and retailer demand for indoor grown salads driven by real need for a better quality product and more resilient supply network. Through expansion, innovation, and collaboration – the future of indoor grown is brighter than ever! #IndoorAgTech #BrightFarms #SustainableAgriculture #IndoorFarming

Overheard this week at the Indoor AgTech Innovation Summit:   “In introducing new berry varieties to growers, we have to paint a really clear picture that this is going to be economically advantageous to them. With our new seedless blackberries, we developed this consumer-facing trait in concert to two others that will be beneficial to indoor and field growers alike: thornless and compact. In particular, our compact trait is really interesting because we made the plants smaller which allows for higher-density planting per acre – with the goal of significantly improving yield.” - @Tom Spaulding, Vice President of Pairwise's Commercial Berry business #IndoorAgTech #Pairwise #CRISPR #GeneEditing #Agriculture #FoodSystems #AgTech #AgriFoodTech