Earth Equity Farms nabs seed round

SEC filings report that Berkeley-based Earth Equity Farms has raised an additional $267k, bringing their total round to $822k, which they launched last year. According to the companies website, Earth Equity Farms is developing “sustainable Organic Fair Trade agriculture” through climate controlled greenhouses that “reduce water usage [generate] high production yields and near elimination of crop damage risk”. To date the company has reported no revenue.

Startups in the Environment Controlled Agriculture space had a break-out year in 2014, pulling in nearly $210 million in funding. This included AeroFarms ($36m), Bright Farms ($7.3m), Freight Farms ($3.7m), Fresh Realm ($10m), PodPonics ($4.6), Gotham Greens ($8m), and  GrowLife ($14.5m), and SunDrop Farms ($100m). Environment Controlled Agriculture has benefitted from a confluence of factors including a prolonged drought in California driving up prices for high value crops like lettuce, herbs, and tomatoes; legalization of cannabis in many states; local-food movements, and the emergence of low-cost LED lighting.

Earth Equity’s plan, outlined on AngelList, calls to develop 37 acres of greenhouse each year over the next three years, with a 12-acre greenhouse for Phase one. Phase one is projected to cost $650k and generate $800k in annual EBITDA, with the entire operation projecting $13.2M EBITDA after year four.

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Correction: Gannon over at CleanTech sent over a correction. The company did not have two separate rounds. Rather, the SEC filing was an amendment to last years Reg D filing.