Pure Harvest Smart Farms, today announced that it has secured US $64.5 million in growth capital to accelerate the Company’s expansion and technology development efforts. This latest financing round was led by Korea’s leading private investment firm IMM Investment together with existing investors and management.
Sky Kurtz, Founder and Chief Executive, commenting on the announcement, said: “We are delighted to welcome IMM as the latest global institutional investor to fund our mission. This is a landmark financing for Pure Harvest two reasons: first, IMM is one of Asia’s most respected and successful alternative investors, signaling the strength of our investment case; and second, the firm has been a longstanding investor in controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) through serial investments in Farm8 and PlanTFarm, leading Korean agribusiness and vertical farming ventures. They understand the market opportunity and the merits of our solutions, and IMM will bring tremendous value supporting our expansion into Asia. Most importantly, we share the same values and vision for building a more resilient and sustainable food system for the world, tackling food security challenges and localising food production anywhere – even in the harshest climate environments. We are proud to partner with IMM and would like to welcome IMM’s Partner, Hyun-Chan Cho, the former director of Infrastructure & Natural Resources, Asia Pacific, at International Finance Corporation (a member of the World Bank Group) to our board of directors.”
The funding announcement accompanies Pure Harvest’s joint venture partnership with PlanTFarm, one of the world’s largest and most innovative vertical farming solutions providers, whereby the partners will jointly design, build and operate indoor vertical farms, deploying PlanTFarm’s cost-efficient proprietary vertical farming systems. The joint venture was motivated by IMM Investment, the largest shareholder in PlanTFarm.
Citigroup Global Markets acted as financial advisor and placement agent on the transaction.
