US vertical farming company Kalera appears to be making good progress with efforts to restructure and become a profitable fresh food business. In January Growy Holdings BV acquired Kalera’s international farms in Kuwait and Singapore, then in April Kalera filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy – a move which saw the company delisted from the Nasdaq whilst its US farms continued to operate.
Now Kalera’s assets have now been acquired by Lactuca Holdings, LLC for an undisclosed sum, with financial backing provided by private equity investment manager, Sandton Capital Partners.
The indoor farming facilities in Atlanta, Denver and Houston have been acquired as part of the deal. Kalera will continue to operate business as usual under the premium Kalera brand. The incumbent Kalera team also remains in position to lead the business forward.
The financial support of Sandton will provide the necessary investment to support the firm’s growth, enhancing its relationships with existing customers and supporting its scaling up activities with new retail and wholesale partners.
Cristian Toma PhD, Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer, Kalera said: “Kalera is focused on growing fresh, clean, high-quality, nutrient-rich greens in a cost effective and sustainable way. Good science is central to our core offering of providing leafy greens grown indoors in perfect conditions and 100% free of harmful sprays and pesticides. Our methods deliver high nutrients and 90% less water while using a fraction of the land traditional farming requires.
We’re proud to be an innovative, well-capitalized business leveraging our best-in-class technology and growing methods to achieve the highest quality products for our customers. The investment from Sandton is instrumental in supporting our strategy for long-term growth and fulfilling market demand. It will help us to tap further into the expanding $30 billion global lettuce market.
We have plans to increase our production volumes and build upon our already successful high-yielding lettuce and basil programs and expand our micro-green product portfolio. There are also plans underway to license our technology to other vertical growers in a move to help industry participants and bolster the vertical agriculture industry.”
