Elevate Farms closes on $1.8 million in round of funding

Elevate Farms, a tech-based vertical farming company, announced the closing of a $1.8 million round of funding led by Brightspark Ventures.

Elevate Farms uses "hydroponics and a proprietary automation system, paired with photobiology, to grow high-quality leafy greens (such as arugula, kale and basil) in a climate-controlled environment."

Elevate Farms’ system aims to deliver a product that is larger, tastes better, and has higher nutritional content than traditionally-grown leafy greens – all at a lower cost. The produce grown by Elevate Farms also has the benefit of being local, completely non-GMO, as well as pesticide and chemical free.

“Elevate Farms represents the next generation of indoor farming: their system solves some of the biggest problems the first wave of vertical farms experienced” says Mark Skapinker, managing partner at Brightspark Ventures. He continued, “their edge is their ability to cost-effectively create a tasty and nutritious product - and grow it at a mass-market scale. We invested because we saw meaningful potential, being a team of world-leading experts that can execute, proven technology, and true science being applied into a massive marketplace.”

Elevate Farms says that it is the first to commercially implement an automated climate-controlled environment for plant-production that utilizes far less labor than other indoor farms.

“With the new funding, the company is now ready to scale significantly,” says Elevate Farms CEO Amin Jadavji. "This financing will allow us to execute on our currently secured flagship facilities in New Jersey and Niagara, each projected to produce in excess of one-million pounds of leafy greens annually.” Mr. Jadavji continued: “The funding will also fuel our plans to scale the business, grow our team, build and secure new and existing IP, prepare for business partnership opportunities, as well as finalize initial major orders and operational financing.”