Elevate Farms to expand in both US and EU

Elevate Farms is expanding its vertically-farmed leafy greens footprint in both the US and Europe.

Rooted in multi-year photobiology research at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, Elevate Farms builds and operates vertical farms that grow incredibly flavorful, highly nutritious salads and herbs with 95% less water and over 300 times the productivity of conventional farming – all within minutes of its customers. Following the successful launch of farms in the US and New Zealand, Elevate Farms is now embarking on two large-scale projects in Switzerland and the Northeast US. This is part of Elevate's continued ambition to play a meaningful role in the transition of global food systems by growing profitably, at scale, and for mass consumption.

Defying the industry-wide negative performance recently plaguing indoor agriculture over the past 18 months, Elevate has taken a different approach with different results – all from Day One. "Growing plants indoors is easy," says Per Aage Lysaa, Elevate's co-founder and CTO. "Growing them at scale, at this quality and consistency, and at a cost structure that enables us to sell to a large mass-market audience is another challenge altogether. That's why we spent the first years of our business researching the light, climate, water, and nutrient protocols required to optimize growth and then designed an automated growth system around these photobiology insights." Amin Jadavji, co-founder and CEO, added: "We just think of it as doing our homework before we go out to raise capital and tell a story. Stories are important, but innovating in agriculture and food production is exceptionally hard work and requires a deep understanding of plant behavior and engineering to really make a difference. We find it easier to tell a story that's rooted in something real."

To help Elevate refine and tell its story and deliver on retail and food service customer needs, Elevate Farms is delighted to announce that Nikolas Oetker has joined the company as Chief Marketing Officer. A long-term supporter of Elevate, Nikolas has been an Advisory Board member since 2022. He adds deep food business management expertise to the team, having held several senior marketing, sales, and management roles in both Asia and Europe - most recently as Executive Head of Marketing at Dr. Oetker Ibérica SA. When he is not elevating agriculture, Nikolas can usually be found cooking with his wife and two children, and sometimes, though not nearly often enough, he'll be surfing in El Salvador. Elevate is thrilled to have Nikolas on board, and we all look forward to the innovative perspectives and leadership he will bring to the team.