“There have been boom periods in controlled agriculture, in high tech greenhouses. But even the Dutch industry now realizes something different is happening right now,” says David Chen, CEO with Equilibrium. Today, the company closes the industry’s largest Environment Agriculture fund at $1.022 billion.
The heat wave made the case more starkly than could any investment pitch deck.
In their offices in Portland, the team at Equilibrium Capital was putting the finishing touches on the real assets manager’s second greenhouse agriculture fund just as the temperature in the Oregon city hit a record-shattering 116 degrees. The Controlled Environment Foods Fund II is itself a record-breaker as Equilibrium’s first billion-dollar fund.
It’s a lot of green to grow a lot of greens — and other fruits and vegetables. Portland-based Equilibrium Capital has raised more than $1 billion to invest in a new generation of greenhouse-based agriculture, which advocates say better addresses climate change and other environmental problems tied up with traditional farming.
It is difficult not to take note of the amount of investment capital flowing into private greenhouse vegetable and vertical farming operations these days. Why is this a trendy investment area, and what opportunities do investors see in these markets?
Equilibrium plans to invest more than $110 million to back its portfolio company Revol Greens, as it expands into Texas through a four-phase construction of what it says will be the world’s largest indoor lettuce facility.
On the heels of closing its $68 million funding round, led by Equilibrium Capital, Revol Greens BB #:358676 is adding Michael B. Wainscott to the newly created role of Chief Financial Officer.
The Development Bank of Japan (DBJ) has made an undisclosed investment in Equilibrium Capital’s Controlled Environment Foods Fund II, becoming the first regional Asian investor to do so.
Concerns about the resiliency of the food supply chain went from conceptual to concrete when the COVID crisis shut down railroads and stranded ships.
The controlled environment agriculture (CEA) space appears to be in a race, with startups jostling to see which can build the biggest facility or supply the most produce.
AppHarvest (“the Company”), a developer and operator of large-scale, high-tech controlled environment indoor farms, and Novus Capital Corp. (Nasdaq: NOVS) (“Novus Capital”), a publicly-traded special purpose acquisition company, announced today a definitive agreement for a business combination that would result in AppHarvest becoming a public company.