Kentucky-based AppHarvest to go public

AppHarvest, the Morehead, Kentucky based farming company, announced in a press release that it is going public. 

Per the release, AppHarvest is combining with Novus Capital - a publicly-traded acquisition company - in order to go public. Jonathan Webb, the CEO and founder of AppHarvest, will be in charge of the joint company. 

“We are excited to transition AppHarvest to a public company and raise nearly a half a billion dollars in the process,” said Jonathan Webb, Founder & Chief Executive Officer of AppHarvest. “This will allow us to pursue our mission of transforming agriculture. A mission that’s become even more important since the global pandemic exposed how a rapidly increasing reliance on imports jeopardizes food security. We now know that, to build a more resilient food system that meets our growing population demands, we must immediately start building controlled environment agriculture facilities, as these farms use far fewer resources to grow far more produce. We believe that this partnership with Novus Capital is a transformative transaction which will allow us to both rapidly scale our agriculture facilities, in pursuit of our goal to redefine American agriculture, and build the country’s AgTech capital within Appalachia. Together we can transform agriculture.”

Per the announcement, AppHarvest will initially sell for $10 a share with a $1 billion pro forma equity value. The transaction will also provide $475 million of gross proceeds.

AppHarvest has yet to have its crop in its 60-acre, fully-automated facility, but during a recent interview with CNBC said the plan to have the first harvest in the beginning of next year.