At Food Security SummitX in Dubai this year, Bernard Sleijster and Nadirsha Everett, co-founders of Food Security Capital, spoke about how the investment landscape in agriculture is often too narrowly focused.
"When raising money, the conversation often revolves around IP, technology, and proprietary assets," Sleijster said. "When we spoke with a local government, such as in Barbados, it became clear that they have a real desire to make that agricultural transition to a more sustainable, innovative, and high-tech value chain. But in many cases, they just do not have access to proper finance."
Sleijster and Everett say that this realization shaped the company's creation. "The goal is to create local food security, to lower food dependency, and to reduce food imports. It should not be about who owns the IP."
© Wesley Francis | VerticalFarmDaily.com
From Indoor Vertical.Farm to Food Security Capital
Sleijster and Everett also co-founded Indoor Vertical.Farm in the Netherlands, where modular indoor-farming systems were developed to help communities produce food closer to where it is consumed. That operational experience laid the groundwork for Food Security Capital's financing model.
"If we build an indoor farm, that is one thing," Sleijster explained. "But what if we build a greenhouse, or supply a simple netted housing system with a basic irrigation setup? There is hardly any advanced technology involved, yet it can still be part of the solution. The question should be what impact we can create, how many people we can feed, and how much we can reduce dependency on imports. Those are the conversations we need to have. Food security is not a luxury, it's a fundamental right."
"That is why we incorporated Food Security Capital, to sit down with local stakeholders. It could be a local government, a multilateral organization such as a development bank or fund, or the United Nations World Food Programme. We are having those conversations because the solution is to bring agricultural infrastructure directly to communities."
© Food Security Capital / Indoor Vertical.Farm 
© Food Security Capital / Indoor Vertical.Farm
Food Security Capital was honored with the award for Excellence in Climate-Smart Infrastructure Finance at Food Security Summit X
Financing the transition
Sleijster described Food Security Capital as "a type of investment vehicle that combines equity, debt, and blended finance."
"We will have the equity and the debt notes listed on a European Stock Exchange," he said. "We are targeting the institutional market, such as development banks, sovereign funds, and other professional investors. It is an institutional investment structure."
The company has done its soft launch this week at the Curaçao International Investment Summit and already has a strong pipeline of projects, often in partnership with local governments. "We have a team of experienced corporate finance and investment managers who professionally evaluate the targeted opportunities," Sleijster said.
Initially, Food Security Capital was designed to finance its own farms, but market feedback encouraged a broader approach. "We saw an opportunity to work with both local governments and the private sector," says Everett. "That way, we can diversify the risk profile of the investment. If you only fund your own projects, your entire risk exposure depends on what you do yourself. By supporting external initiatives, we can create a more balanced and blended portfolio."
© Indoor Vertical.Farm
Indoor Vertical.Farm's pilot container farm project in Barbados
Island states as laboratories for resilience
The company's first projects are concentrated in the Caribbean, with Barbados serving as an early case study. Indoor Vertical.Farm technology is already being deployed there for a pilot farm in partnership with the country's Ministry of Agriculture, and a second commercial phase will be developed under Food Security Capital's financing framework.
"We divided the world into three regions," Sleijster explains. "Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the South-East Pacific. What we like about island states, and why we have started in the Caribbean, is that they all face the same challenges. They depend heavily on energy imports and are now trying to transition to renewable energy. At the same time, most of the island states import 85 to 90 percent of their food. Working with these governments and local communities allows us to make a real impact."
For Everett, the mission extends beyond equipment delivery. "The main mission that Food Security Capital has is not only to deploy equipment," she said. "It is to help reduce the import bill. In the Caribbean, it is not only storms and hurricanes that affect production. There are also local issues, such as animals, like monkeys, destroying crops. It gets harder and harder for farmers to grow outdoors."
"This is why we focus not only on indoor farming but also on other forms of controlled environment agriculture, such as greenhouses or low-tech solutions. By working with leading CEA technology partners and growers, we can supply every component and deliver a fully turnkey solution, while also building local capacity to support long-term food resilience."
For more information:
Food Security Capital / Indoor Vertical.Farm 
Bernard Sleijster, Co-Founder and CEO
[email protected]
www.foodsecuritycapital.com
www.indoorvertical.farm
For more information:
Food Security Capital / Indoor Vertical.Farm 
Nadirsha Everett, Co-Founder and CRO
[email protected]
www.foodsecuritycapital.com
www.indoorvertical.farm
