Aliaxis invests in Freight Farms, a world leader in vertical farming technology

Brussels, November 14, 2022 – Aliaxis SA, a world leader enabling access to water and energy through inventive fluid management solutions, today announced that it will invest in Freights Farms, a world leader in vertical farming technology and software allowing 90 to 99% water savings compared to traditional farming.

Freight Farms was founded in 2012 in the United States, with the mission to enable access to locally produced food. Nowadays, the company has evolved into an industry leader working with a diverse portfolio of educational institutions, entrepreneurs, non-profits, resorts, and more — all across five continents. Freight Farms offers a platform of products and services for controlled environment agriculture, including the Greenery™ S, a modular hydroponic grow system and farmhand®, an Internet of Things (IoT) farm management software that creates optimal climates using live and historical data from growing operations and connects to the system via a proprietary controller design. Freight Farms employs 50 people.

This strategic partnership will be part of Water for Food business unit within Aliaxis Next, the newly created division of Aliaxis to select, incubate, nurture, and grow businesses from new domains to improve water management.

“Currently, 70% of fresh water is used for food production,” says Eric Olsen, CEO of Aliaxis. “By investing in Freight Farms, we are delivering on our Growth with Purpose strategy to help produce affordable, fresh and locally produced food with much less water. Freight Farms is at the forefront of innovation of vertical farming. This market is growing at more than 25% of compound annual growth rate (CAGR) and is expected to be superior to $10bn market by 2026.”

“Aliaxis is an ideal strategic partner to Freight Farms,” comments Fredrik Östbye, Head of Aliaxis Next. “Agriculture is one of Aliaxis’s four main customer segments with three of our regions, India, Latin America and Australia, having strong ambitions in micro-irrigation, greenhouse technology and digital farming.”

“The Aliaxis Next set-up is unique. It’s a team of business builders investing strategically with a clear societal impact in mind: bringing solutions to world water challenges,” says Rick Vanzura, CEO of Freight Farms. “Their investment further solidifies the need for vertical hydroponics as a solution to the current agriculture system that has been a critical drain on finite resources such as water. Backed by the strength, know-how, and reach of Aliaxis Group, we are now able to continue our innovations in vertical hydroponic farming.”

The financial details of this agreement will not be disclosed