Today, Generate Capital, a leading sustainable infrastructure investment and operating company, and GrowUp, the UK’s best-selling vertical farm, announced a £38 million investment to meet growing demand for GrowUp’s popular ready-to-eat salads.
Generate Capital’s investment will help expand capacity at GrowUp’s Kent vertical farm, accelerate GrowUp’s leadership of the UK salad category, support the Unbeleafable and Fresh Leaf Co. brands, drive R&D at GrowUp’s Leaf Lab site in Cambridge, and increase GrowUp’s influence as a certified B Corp.
This funding extends Generate Capital’s existing partnership with GrowUp, following an initial financing in 2021 that enabled GrowUp 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.
“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,” said Marcus Whately, CEO of GrowUp.
“Consumers want UK-grown, sustainable, longer-lasting leaves – grown without pesticides. With this further investment, we can expand production to meet demand and continue to transform UK food production. We’ve been growing for over 11 years now. We’ve come a long way with Generate Capital’s support, since Kate Hofman and Tom Webster set up their first vertical farm in 2013, supplying salad leaves to London markets and restaurants,” added Whately.
“GrowUp is one of the UK’s most exciting and innovative vertical farming operations, experiencing nearly 800% sales increase year over year. Their ability to quickly earn the trust of the UK’s largest retailers shows the appeal of their product lines, the strength of their team, and their ability to meet rising consumer demand for healthy, locally grown food,” said Generate Capital’s CEO and co-founder Scott Jacobs. “We look forward to working with them to keep accelerating the decarbonisation of the food system by providing nutritious, affordable and sustainable greens to UK consumers and food manufacturers.”
“Since our first investment in 2021, GrowUp’s unique approach has demonstrated that producing superior, sustainable leafy greens at scale and at competitive pricing is possible, unlocking the potential to capture significant market share in the UK salad market,” added Eduardo Clemente, a managing director at Generate Capital. “In less than a year from starting operations at industrial scale, GrowUp’s success in securing significant interest and volumes from some of the UK largest retailers is a testament to their value proposition.”
