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Rise Gardens raises $9 million to expand indoor hydroponic garden systems

Supplier of smart indoor hydroponic garden systems, Rise Gardens announced it has raised $9 million in an oversubscribed Series A round, led by TELUS Ventures, a corporate venture capital fund in Canada

Current investors, True Ventures and Amazon Alexa Fund, also participated in the round, along with new investor Listen Ventures, bringing the total amount raised to date to $13 million. The additional funds will be used to continue the company’s product innovation and expansion into new markets.

“We’re thrilled with the opportunity to grow and expand our product offerings and reach an even wider audience in the U.S., Canada and around the world,” said Hank Adams, founder and CEO, Rise Gardens. “This investment will help us toward achieving our mission of connecting people to the food they eat and creating a new generation of conscientious food consumers.”

Rise Gardens makes an IoT-connected, indoor hydroponic gardening system that comes with everything needed to grow a wide variety of vegetables, herbs and microgreens at home, year-round. The systems are designed with simplicity in mind, including a mobile app that monitors water levels and plant progress, and reminds users when and how much to water, fertilize, and care for their plants.

Rise Gardens’ Family Garden has a modular design allowing for one, two, or three levels of growth, accommodating everything from greens and herbs to micro greens, tomatoes, and beets. No other system allows for such variety. Its Personal Garden is a counter-top version designed to fit into any space without sacrificing variety or quality of growing.

“There is a clear market need in vertical farming and hydroponic gardening for home use and we are committed to making investments that leverage the power of technology to further sustainability initiatives while promoting healthy outcomes,” said Rich Osborn, president and managing partner, TELUS Ventures. “Aligning our social impact mission with investments in companies like Rise Gardens that have exceptional founders, innovative leadership and first rate solutions applied to the industry will help us to collectively advance the positive  transformation of the food supply chain.”

This investment is the latest move in TELUS’ larger Agriculture strategy. In November of 2020, TELUS launched a new business unit, TELUS Agriculture, with the goal of connecting the food value chain from end-to-end to enable a safer, more sustainable food system; economically, environmentally and socially.

“In order to build a more resilient, sustainable food system we are looking at ways to enable all forms of agriculture,” said Nish Majarian, head of agribusiness, TELUS Agriculture. “This investment in Rise Gardens is a natural fit and compliment to more traditional forms of production.”

Fueled by early anxiety about grocery shopping during the pandemic and ongoing concerns about sustainability, Rise Gardens saw sales soar over the past year, with gardens selling out three times in 2020 alone. To date, Rise Gardens customers have harvested over 40,000 plants, which is over 12,000 pounds of produce grown for more than 3,000 families across the United States, Canada and Mexico. The company estimates it has helped divert more than 2,000 pounds of food waste and saved about 120 million food miles as well as saving 250,000 gallons of water since 2019.