At the intersection of the UAE's rapid food security initiatives and the country's ability to provide a thriving launchpad for startups, there has been a welcome increase in the number of startups offering alternative farming and food production facilities. It is within such a landscape that Beyond Farming, a turn-key urban indoor vertical farm solution, was born in the Emirates in November 2024.
"At Beyond Farming, we focus on revolutionizing urban agriculture through advanced agricultural technologies such as fogponics to address the challenges of food security, sustainability, and profitability of urban indoor vertical farming agriculture," explains Chris Bolton, the startup's founder, Chairman, and CEO. "The main problem we're addressing is enhancing food security and sustainability in urban areas by providing a repeatable, economic, practical, sustainable, scalable, saf,e and secure urban indoor Farm as a Solution (FaaS) facility. We are driven by the urgent need to provide cities with reliable access to fresh, sustainably grown local produce."
Created by Bolton along with Pedro Silva (CFO), Ricardo Ferrer (Interim COO), and Shawn Kelly (Chief Revenue Officer), Beyond Farming thus enables the production of nine categories of crops -including fruits, vegetables, and mushrooms- within fully configurable controlled environments and without the use of contaminants. Designed with a "Farm-to-Fork" approach (i.e straight from an urban farm to consumers), Beyond Farming operates on a dual business model, offering two choices of FaaS: "We Own" and "You Own". "The two options help accommodate different investment and operational preferences," explains Silva.
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