We’re focused on providing the best technologies, manufacturing & operating services, & plant science data to improve global crop production: Jamie Burrows, Founder & CEO of Vertical Future

The Silicon Review

“We carry out a significant amount of continuous R&D at our production sites and also through activities stemming from academic, scientific, and commercial partnerships. The results of these research initiatives improve our overall technology offering and enrich our data pool.”

Vertical Future, aka VF, is a global vertical farming technology and data company. It designs, manufactures, and provides proprietary hardware and software solutions on a global scale, including fully-integrated and automated vertical farms—from seed to harvest.

Put simply, VF is changing how people, businesses, and governments view and value sustainable crop production.

The company was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in London, with close to 80 staff.

The Silicon Review reached out to Jamie Burrows, Founder and CEO of Vertical Future, and here’s what he had to say.

Interview Highlights

Q. What circumstances or events led to the creation of Vertical Future? Please brief us about the history so far.

I have always been interested in the interaction between technology, nature, and health – and my previous roles in life sciences and economic regeneration had much to do with this. Personal circumstances in addition to ambitions ultimately led me to founding Vertical Future at the age of 30. Vertical farming, which is a subset of broader controlled-environment-agriculture (CEA), fascinates me as it allows us to change the rules of crop production sustainably, addressing many economic, health, climate, and socioeconomic challenges.

Setbacks are a part of every growing business. Tell us about a few roadblocks and learning lessons that helped Vertical Future grow through the years.

The company was bootstrapped from the beginning, and I had to take full debenture over all my assets for the first three years. This was a tremendously stressful period for obvious reasons. More broadly, starting fresh in a sector that was not only new to me but also to the investment community, came with its challenges. Proof points and benchmarks constantly changed, many companies have (naturally) failed, and getting over the first fundraising hurdle that was required to evolve our technology offering was probably the biggest challenge of all. My biggest learning was to not procrastinate. Having downtime is obviously important for physical and mental health, but it would be naïve to think that you don’t have to always be switched on, especially if you want to build a global business.

Q. As the world’s leading vertical farming technology and R&D company, what are Vertical’s key focus areas?

We are focused on providing the best technologies, manufacturing and operating services, and plant science data to improve global crop production. Adopting a very different approach to our global competition, we chose to take the much harder path of developing everything in-house. We are also on track to manufacturing everything internally. These two characteristics allow us to be significantly more competitive and to continually increase productivity as this sector grows.

Q. Can you introduce us to your services? What are their primary features?

Our model is broad yet simple. We build fully automated, turnkey vertical farms for willing customers, and once they are in operation, we transition to offering data services through our SaaS product, DIANA, which is effectively the brain of the farm and connects farms across an increasingly global network. As we have owned and operated our vertical farms in the past, we provide operating services for buyers of our farms if there is a strategic fit. Finally, we undertake a significant amount of continuous R&D at our production sites and through academic, scientific, and commercial partnerships. The results of this research initiative improve our overall technology offering and enrich our data pool.

Q. Can you provide us with one or two success stories describing the challenges your clients faced and how Vertical helped them overcome those challenges?

Our customers typically have a set of shared challenges, but perhaps our biggest victories to date have been in expanding beyond food for human production – into projects relating to animal fodder, pharmaceuticals, and genetics.

Tell us, what’s next for Vertical Future.

With a sizeable Series-B underway and a growing number of projects across Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, Vertical Future is moving into a period of rapid growth and technology deployment. We are also moving into a period where the level of incoming data will be significant and game-changing, creating opportunities for data commercialization and synergies with the broader agricultural system.

Q. Is there anything you would like to add before we wrap up?

Despite some high profiles in the vertical farming space over the past year and volatility in supply chains and capital markets, the overall vertical farming sector is still stable and indeed growing at a rapid rate. Investors, consumers, and members of the public need to understand that this is not a ‘flash in the pan’ industry; but one that is long-term and will be subject to small victories and incremental improvements over time – not overnight change.

Jamie Burrows | Founder & CEO

Jamie Burrows has over 15 years of experience and prior to setting up VF, including working in Life Sciences at EY, Deloitte, and the UK Department of Health. His experiences in health system improvement translated over to VF, with the company’s goal focused on both planetary and population health improvement.

Jamie is also a graduate of the prestigious Leadership Enrichment and Development (LEAD) programme at the U.S. Air Force Academy and holds three degrees up to the Ph.D. level in the disciplines of energy, trade, finance, and health economics.

He is married with three children and currently resides in London, UK.