Cambridge boost as vertical farm GrowUp reaps £38m harvest

The company reveals that the cash injection will help expand capacity at GrowUp’s Kent vertical farm, accelerate the group’s leadership of the UK salad category, support the Unbeleafable and Fresh Leaf Co. brands, drive R & D at GrowUp’s Leaf Lab site at the heart of the Bourn Quarter in Cambridge and increase GrowUp’s influence as a certified B Corp.

GrowUp says the latest investment boost will help it meet burgeoning demand from retailers for the firm’s ready-to-eat salads.

The Leaf Lab is located at the heart of Bourn Quarter, Cambridge’s Sustainable Business Park, and is all about innovation. GrowUp says the Leaf Lab is a research centre dedicated to finding the best food solutions for the future.

The new funding extends Generate Capital’s existing partnership with GrowUp, following an initial financing in 2021 that enabled the business to prove its energy-efficient growing system and start converting a five-acre brownfield site into the equivalent of 1,000 acres of grade 1 farmland in Kent.

GrowUp is the first vertical farm to have supplied branded, bagged salads to the country’s largest supermarket chain, Tesco, and to Iceland, SPAR, as well as other major food service customers.

Marcus Whately, CEO of GrowUp, says: “This investment is a fantastic boost to GrowUp and recognises the team’s passion and talent. We partnered with Generate Capital because, as a $10 billion sustainable infrastructure investor with a mission to ‘rebuild the world together’, Generate Capital aligns with our ethos.

“With Generate Capital’s support, we have proved that vertically farmed salads are sustainable, cost competitive, and commercially viable, as well as tasty, healthy and long lasting. Together we can unlock a new salad category and meet growing consumer demand.”

Generate Capital’s CEO and co-founder Scott Jacobs added: “GrowUp is one of the UK’s most exciting and innovative vertical farming operations, experiencing nearly 800 per cent sales increase year over year.

“Its ability to quickly earn the trust of the UK’s largest retailers shows the appeal of its product lines, the strength of its team and the company’s ability to meet rising consumer demand for healthy, locally grown food.”

GrowUp Farms was founded by Kate Hofman and Tom Webster in 2013 in a small unit in London where they created a controlled environment to grow salad leaves that they supplied to Borough Market and London restaurants. Fast forward 11 years and over £100 million investment, GrowUp has taken a five-acre brownfield site and created a vertical farm in Kent growing salad leaves 365 days a year.

The farm uses state-of-the-art technology and 100 per cent renewable energy from the co-located bioenergy plant to create the ideal environment for the leaves to thrive, ensuring they receive the optimal balance of water, light and nutrients. Once the Kent farm is fully operational, the site will produce 1.4 million bags of salad per week.