• Vertical Future

  Led · Seed · Oct 2019

  Vertical Future is a British vertical farming company. It develops agricultural technologies for controlled-environment crop production. The company was awarded a £1.5m grant from the UK Space Agency to design a system for growing crops in a commercial space station. The project aims to develop a prototype for growing crops in space and explore agricultural technologies for potential use beyond Earth. The award represents the company's move into space-focused agriculture, described in the article as something no British vertical farming company has done before. The excerpt does not provide further operational or financial details beyond the grant. Vertical Future develops vertical farming hardware and software technologies and offers operational support and consulting services. The company runs an active R&D programme with the University of Cambridge, Loughborough University, and NIAB, researching yield, nutritional profile improvements, and phytopharmaceutical applications. It has a pipeline of projects in the UK, Ireland, Italy, and Singapore and is pursuing partnerships with major UK retail and logistics brands to accelerate growth. The business aims to produce affordable, higher-quality everyday produce rather than only premium salad and microgreens. The Series A funds will be used to deploy farms, integrate specific manufacturing capabilities, and expand the team, with headcount expected to exceed 60 by the end of Q2 2022. To date, Vertical Future has raised £26.1 million, including the recent £21 million Series A. Vertical Future develops vertical-farming technology and operates indoor 'ethical plant factories', selling produce direct-to-consumer under the MiniCrops brand and to B2B restaurant customers. Its current operations are in Deptford, with a site planned to open in London Fields in November and plans for an additional plant factory in Mayfair. The company supplies more than 100 dining establishments across London, including Quaglino’s, Tom’s Kitchen, Mindful Chef, Chop’d, Kaleido, Sartoria and Lahpet. Vertical Future says it has three years of work and proof of concept behind it and aims to scale both its B2B and direct-to-customer channels. Management includes co-founder and CEO Jamie Burrows and co-founder Marie-Alexandrine, with Lord Nigel Crisp serving as a non-executive board member.

• Verv

  Led · Series A · Apr 2019

  Verv develops a smart energy hub that uses AI and blockchain to provide real-time appliance-level metering, analytics and peer-to-peer renewable energy trading. Its platform reads data up to five million times faster than a smart meter and the company has filed seven patents around its AI and blockchain technology. Verv’s solutions aim to reduce household electricity bills and carbon emissions by over 20% and are already being piloted in social housing and commercial trials. Customers named in the article include British Gas (Centrica), PTT and Dubai Electricity & Water Authority, and the company executed the UK’s first blockchain peer-to-peer energy trade in April 2018. Verv is Google-mentored (Launchpad 2017) and was established in 2015. The company plans to use new funding to push into global markets across Europe, the Middle East and Asia, continue development of a three-phase smart hub to expand building compatibility, scale its P2P trading pilots, and expand its internal home control system for next-generation smart home energy management. Verv, a brand of London, UK-based Green Running Ltd, develops an AI-based home energy assistant that transforms everyday household appliances into smart ones and connects consumers to their electricity. The plug-and-play device requires no electrician to install, retails at £249, and was available to pre-order via the Verv website, Box.co.uk, Appliances Direct and Ebuyer, with shipments to UK homes from mid-November 2017. The company is also building a blockchain-based peer-to-peer energy trading solution, Verv 2.0, which uses advanced AI predictions to trade electricity on blockchain technology at the best price. Led by CEO and founder Peter Davies, Verv raised external capital to scale manufacturing and accelerate product development. The company’s recent financing supports both hardware scale-up and further development of its P2P energy trading platform.

No current team members are available.