Existing investors have backed a $150 million debt and equity capital raising round for Gold Coast-based indoor vertical farming business Stacked Farm.
The existing investors are US asset management firm Magnetar Capital plus Australian investors Tribeca Investment Partners and Tayside Investments, the family office of Rick Smith, AM, who built up PFD Food Services which was sold to Woolworths in 2020.
Stacked Farm has declined to provide a breakdown of its latest funding round or an implied valuation.
The company’s management say they have learned from the failures of several indoor farming ventures in the US which attracted Silicon Valley venture capital money during the boom in early-stage technology investing from around 2011 to the early 2020s.
They say they have developed their own robotics to grow high demand vegetables and herbs with low labour input.
Stacked Farm started with a trial 400 square metre set-up in Burleigh Heads in 2017.
In mid-2022 the business raised $56 million in equity, debt and convertible notes from Magnetar, Tribeca and other Australian investment firms Stratos Capital and Founder Led Investments.
Following that round, Stacked Farm developed a 2100 square metre facility in Arundel in the Gold Coast area.
In mid-2023, Stacked Farm raised a further $40 million in a round led by Tayside Investments.
The company has now secured planning approval to develop a 10,000 square metre facility in north-west Melbourne, which it says will produce 3.4 million kilograms of green vegetables annually with only 15 staff.
Since entering full commercial production in early 2024, Stacked Farm is now producing several tonnes of vegetables and herbs a year. Most of the produce goes to fast food chains such as Grill’d and Nandos.
Stacked Farm chief executive Conrad Smith said the business had developed its own proprietary robotics systems to reduce production costs. Robotics are used to plant, harvest and package produce.
Incentives from the Gold Coast City Council persuaded Stacked Farm to set up its head office and develop its first facility in the council’s area.
Significant investor Magnetar Capital is based in Evanston, Illinois, and has more than $US18 billion in assets under management across a range of strategies including venture capital. In August, Magnetar Ventures closed an AI Ventures Fund at $US235 million ($377 million).
Image: Inside Stacked Farm’s Arundel, Gold Coast, production facility.