USA – Chicago-based Rise Gardens, founded by serial entrepreneur Hank Adams, has closed its seed investment round, raising US$2.6 million in a financing round led by San Francisco-based True Ventures and other prominent Chicago business leaders.
Rise Gardens has developed a smart indoor hydroponic gardening system, providing a complete set of virtually everything needed to grow food at home year-round as part of the startup’s mission to encourage better nutrition and healthy outcomes.
Designed with simplicity and variety in mind and paired with a sophisticated app and supplies mailed to customers, Rise Gardens claims that the system provides a “seamless gardening experience that’s perfect for novices and connoisseurs alike.”
According to the startup, the system is modular to allow for upto three levels of growth and can grow everything from greens and herbs to tomatoes and beets. “No other system allows for such variety,” the startup says.
Following the funding round, Hank Adams, Founder and CEO, Rise Gardens said that the partnership with the investors will help the company achieve a tangible social impact by improving nutrition for all of our customers.
“Thanks to the hard work of a passionate team, we have built a productive and easy-to-use indoor gardening system that consumers love,” Hank Adams said.
“We’re thrilled to have True Ventures, with their amazing track record and capabilities, choose to invest in us. I’m also very grateful for the support of incredible tech leaders who’s backing helped get us to this important milestone.”
The round follows a period of exponential growth by the company since its launch in Q4 of 2019. The company has doubled its sales every month since January with a 750% growth rate over the previous quarter.
The startup observes that customers have planted 6,000 plants in the last two months alone, which is 1,500 pounds of produce grown for more than 300 families across the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Rise Gardens joins the burgeoning list of vertical farming start-ups. With supporters claiming that vertical farming could revolutionise food production, the technology has been the subject of a lot of hype in recent years. Investors are also feeling the hype, with vertical farming start-ups raising over a billion dollars in investment in the last five years alone.
