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James Hutton Institute congratulates Intelligent Growth Solutions on achieving £5.4m funding boost

Produce growing on IGS Ltd's vertical farm at our Dundee site
“The collaboration has proved to be a major strength in developing the Advanced Plant Growth Centre initiative, which has been backed by a £27m transformational investment from the Tay Cities deal. We look forward to helping establish Scotland as a lead science centre for this new industry”

Professor Colin Campbell, Chief Executive of the James Hutton Institute, has congratulated the Scottish-based vertical farm technology business Intelligent Growth Solutions Ltd (IGS) on attracting £5.4m Series A funding, led by US-based S2G Ventures, to achieve global growth in vertical farming.

The Series A funding round was led by S2G Ventures (Chicago), the most active agri-foodtech investor globally in 2018, with online venture capital firm AgFunder (San Francisco), the second most active and Scottish Investment Bank (SIB).

IGS Chief Executive Officer David Farquhar said “We are thrilled to have the backing of the world’s leading agri-tech investors and the Scottish Investment Bank. We have recruited a world-class international management team, to be announced soon, to drive our plan forward with support from a board of senior international business people bringing industry expertise and best practice governance to the table.

“This industry is just at the starting line and we look forward to working with our customers, partners and colleagues at the James Hutton Institute to enable the highest quality produce to be grown at economically viable prices and help feed the burgeoning global population.”

Commending IGS on their funding success, Professor Colin Campbell said: “Many congratulations to everyone involved at IGS. There have been fantastic synergies coming out of the combination of the IGS technologies and Hutton’s cutting-edge plant science and collaboration. There are genuine potential game-changing opportunities both for new and conventional horticultural and agricultural systems that can come from our collaboration.

“The fact that Scottish innovation and Scottish science have again led the world with something that has massive economic potential locally, as well as globally, with benefits for the environment due to more efficient energy, water and nutrient use is hugely exciting.

“The collaboration has proved to be a major strength in developing the Advanced Plant Growth Centre initiative, which has been backed by a £27m transformational investment from the Tay Cities deal. We look forward to helping establish Scotland as a lead science centre for this new industry.”

IGS opened Scotland's first vertical farm in August 2018 at the James Hutton Institute's Dundee site, and since then the company has received significant interest from around the world. Its unique technology has been designed specifically to address some of vertical farming’s biggest challenges, including the cost of power and labour, as well as the inability to produce consistently high-quality produce at scale.

Scientists and researchers at the Institute are working with the team at IGS to better understand how growing indoors can impact different varieties of crop growth, as well as driving increased productivity.

The £5.4 million investment will allow IGS to create jobs in areas such as software development, engineering, robotics and automation. It will also help IGS to increase its product development, including continued innovation in AI, big data and the Internet of Things. IGS will also be building global marketing, sales and customer support teams in three continents.

Press and media enquiries: 

Bernardo Rodriguez-Salcedo, Media Manager, James Hutton Institute, Tel: +44 (0)1224 395089 (direct line), +44 (0)344 928 5428 (switchboard) or +44 (0)7791 193918 (mobile), or Kate Forster, Intelligent Growth Solutions, +44 7787 534999.


Printed from /news/james-hutton-institute-congratulates-intelligent-growth-solutions-achieving-%C2%A354m-funding-boost on 29/03/24 11:38:26 AM

The James Hutton Research Institute is the result of the merger in April 2011 of MLURI and SCRI. This merger formed a new powerhouse for research into food, land use, and climate change.