Participated · 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.