Scottish vertical farming startup harvests £5.4m in funding

Founded in 2013, IGS uses a combination of IoT-enabled lighting, automation, and power management to grow fruits and vegetables indoors, with trays of produce stacked vertically to maximise space. The system is managed via a data platform that uses AI to help optimise the growing environment and maximise yields.

According to the company, its patented electrical, electronic and mechanical technologies allow it to deliver yields of 225 per cent compared to growing in greenhouses. The system can also help reduce energy usage by up to 50 per cent and labour costs by up to 80 per cent versus other indoor growing platforms. The Series A funding round was led by US venture capital firms S2G and AgFunder, both of which are highly active investors in the agri-tech sector.

“Indoor agriculture production is at a tipping point,” said Sanjeev Krishnan, managing director of S2G Ventures. “Grocery and food service firms have never been more interested in adopting this in their future supply chain. Cost and quality of product will be critical to scale this adoption. IGS’s revolutionary technology has proven itself to reduce power consumption, improve ventilation and hence reduce the capital and human costs to deliver fresh and differentiated products to consumers.”