As "survivors" begin to emerge from the recent vertical farming market correction, one company to keep an eye on is UK-based Grow Up Farms, which recently banked a £38 million ($50 million) investment from Generate Capital.
Like others, Grow Up Farms grows leafy greens indoors via vertical farming. It has so far managed to avoid the sky-high energy costs associated with vertical farming by co-locating its farm next to a biogas operation and running off 100% renewable energy.
"We benchmarked across all the vertical farming operators in Europe and found that Grow Up had a very unique approach," Eduardo Clemente, managing director of Generate's European investment team, tells AgFunderNews.
Generate focuses specifically on sustainability infrastructure, providing both capital and operational expertise to companies. The firm invests in and operates assets across six sectors: power, mobility, waste, green digital, water and agriculture, and industrial decarbonization.
There have been "a lot of lessons learned" in vertical farming over the last few years, says Clemente, who at the same time suggests there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the sector thanks to Grow Up Farms and others.
Read full interview here.