Startups innovate in a wide variety of fields and spheres. Agritech, for many ventures, is emerging as a leading way to help sustainably grow more food. How is AppHarvest leading the way for enterprises everywhere? Let's take a closer look.
Agritech Startups in Brief
Let's firstly consider how big a sphere agritech is for startups right now. Food technology, as it is otherwise known, has seen huge spikes in funding year on year. One of the biggest leaps in recent times was a 40% jolt from 2017 to 2018. At the time, this was a jump forward to $17 billion in investment funding.
This, it seems, is only increasing. Inside sources believe that agritech may be worth more than $23 billion by 2022. That will mean a five-year growth of around 19.3%, working by compound rates.
Enterprises involved in agritech are poised to change how we grow and cultivate food for a growing population. Human society, good or bad, on a growth spurt toward 9-billion. Therefore, innovators are looking at ways to make food production more efficient and to increase output perpetually.
Some companies may develop software to help manage crop growth and pesticide more efficiently. Others may use AI to automate water and light to help stimulate food growth. Others may even grow meat in laboratory conditions to remove the need for animal culling altogether.
What is AppHarvest?
AppHarvest is one such agri innovator that is making huge strides in the sphere. This once fledgling enterprise has recently announced it will be going public. Stock, impressively, is thought to be emerging at $10 per share.
Specifically, AppHarvest is the brainchild of entrepreneur Jonathan Webb, whose firm revolves around indoor farming. The firm specializes in crop growing via 60 acres of interior greenhouses. Webb aims to re-invigorate agriculture through controlled growing, which means using state of the art technology to stimulate crop and vegetable growth in a safe, indoor environment.
It's thought that food production may need to increase by as much as 75% to meet growing demand over the next 30 years. AppHarvest's approach is to use a reduction of water in crop growing by up to 90%. Webb and his team also believe that moving agriculture to indoor units is the future and that doing so will help to take carbon-emitting vehicles off the road for longer.
AppHarvest is going public before its first crop arrives, showing investors confidence in their future results. It's thought that tomatoes edible from the company's initial scheme will be available for purchase in 2021.
Is Agritech the Future?
Much of AppHarvest's ethos revolves around the confidence in crop growing moving indoors as the years go by. With the agritech sphere booming in terms of funding, the firm may well be onto a good thing.
Investors and third-parties keen to find out more about agritech startups could use databases such as Fundz to find intriguing new avenues. After all, it is all about the greater good – and to help fight against world hunger.
SOURCES
https://apiumhub.com/tech-blog-barcelona/agritech-startups-innovations-facts/
https://urbanagnews.com/blog/exclusives/what-will-appharvest-bring-to-appalachia-the-u-s/
https://hexgn.com/top-100-agritech-startups-for-2020/
https://www.ft.com/content/3c4e9aa2-4044-11e9-b896-fe36ec32aece
