Intelligent Growth Solutions

Intelligent Growth Solutions (IGS) is a UK-based developer of hydroponic vertical farms called “Growth Towers” with the use of machine learning and IoT. The company offers the technology, infrastructure, and training to set up and operate these Growth Towers. IGS adopts a Total Controlled Environment Agriculture (TCEA) technology that allows controlling environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, irrigation, and air composition levels to optimize plant growth. In addition, these towers require less human intervention and can be remotely monitored via a cloud-based app. The Growth Towers are capable of growing a variety of crops including herbs, brassicas, and leafy greens as well as indigenous crops such as warrigal and bush tucker celery. In March 2023 , IGS standardized on New Relic, a full-stack data analysis and observability platform, allowing IGS to cut monitoring spend and free up its software team to focus on sustainable agriculture solutions projects.

According to the company, its facilities can generate 12 pounds per square foot per annum, twice the glasshouse system’s six pounds. IGS further claims that its system typically harvests within 60%–70% of the time it takes in a glasshouse, with the ability to achieve a 2%–3% higher yield.

IGS targets growers, farmers, farming entrepreneurs, and pharmaceutical organizations across the world. As of November 2021, the company operated an office in Chicago and expected to expand further into North America, having secured one major prospective customer in the US and another in Canada. The company has also reported that its sales have increased 4x in the year 2021.

Key customers and partnerships

IGS accessed the Middle East market by partnering with Dubai’s International Real Estate Partners (IREP) (December 2020) and Madar Farms, an Abu-Dhabi-based farming company (May 2021). Under the terms of the deal with Madar Farms, IGS would oversee the development of five Growth Towers with the ability to produce up to 60,000 pounds per annum. The Growth Towers were expected to be operational in November 2021. In Europe, the company secured a partnership with Therme Group, an Austria-based global developer of wellbeing resorts, to co-develop and launch the Therme Intelligent Growth Ecosystem (IGE) across Therme’s wellbeing centers worldwide (November 2021). IGS is also collaborating with Ireland-based real estate investment and fund manager Greenman Group to develop the latter's first vertical farm. IGS also expanded its presence to Australia by partnering with Eden Towers, a vertical farming company offering leafy greens and indigenous crops, to build the latter’s first solar powered vertical farm. (February 2022). In June 2022, IGS partnered with New York-based hydroponic vertical farming startup CubicAcres to build a vertical farming facility for the latter’s expansion into East Coast US. Further, the company partnered with CEA solutions company HarvestUp to build a vertical farm at the Ranken Technical College campus in Ashland, Missouri. In December 2023, the company partnered with ReFarm, a UAE-based group focused on circular and clean technology projects, to provide vertical farming technology for the waste-to-value farm, GigaFarm.

Funding and financials

In November 2021, IGS raised GBP 42.2 million (approximately ~USD 57 million) in a Series B funding round led by Cofra. The fresh funds will be funneled toward supporting IGS to develop its technology to address the challenges of food insecurity and environmental degradation.