Red Sea Farms
ActiveSaltwater-cooled greenhouse and crop technology that grows fresh produce in arid, water-scarce environments using primarily seawater instead of freshwater.
Red Sea Farms is a KAUST spin-out based in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, founded in 2018 by Ryan Lefers (CEO), Mark Tester (Chief Scientist), and Derya Baran (Chief Engineer), that develops saltwater-based greenhouse and crop technology to reduce freshwater use in desert agriculture. The company has raised over $36 million to date from investors including Wa'ed (Aramco's venture arm), Global Ventures, KAUST Innovation Fund, and The Savola Group; its commercial relationship with developer Red Sea Global is an explicit supply partnership, not an ownership stake.
Founders
Funding Rounds
Lead: Ecosystem Integrity Fund
Investors: Ecosystem Integrity Fund, Global Ventures, Dubai Future District Fund, Kanoo Ventures, Globivest, Bonaventure Capital
Raised under the company's new name iyris (rebranded from RedSea/Red Sea Farms). Well below the up-to-$50M Series A target floated in 2022. Also: https://globalaginvesting.com/ecosystem-integrity-fund-leads-16m-series-a-for-iyris/ https://esgmena.com/agriclimate-tech-company-iyris-raises-16-million-in-series-a-round/ https://waya.media/saudi-agritech-iyris-secures-usd16-million-led-by-san-francisco-based-ecosystem-integrity/ Confidence: confirmed (round 13, Wamda).
Lead: Wa'ed and The Savola Group
Investors: Wa'ed, The Savola Group, KAUST Innovation Fund, OlsonUbben LLC
Investors: Wa'ed, The Savola Group, KAUST Innovation Fund, OlsonUbben LLC.
Investors: Wa'ed (Aramco), Future Investment Initiative Institute, KAUST, Global Ventures, AppHarvest, Bonaventure Capital
Company label: 'pre-Series A' (no matching enum; filed as seed). Single round in two tranches: $10M first close announced 2021-06-07 (Wa'ed, FII Institute, KAUST, Global Ventures; Arab News called it 'Series A'), then $6M from US investors AppHarvest and Bonaventure Capital announced 2021-08-15, taking the round to $16M against a $10M target. Arab News June 2021: total raised $11.9M after first close. Also: https://www.arabnews.com/node/1871861/business-economy https://www.wamda.com/2021/08/red-sea-farms-raises-additional-6-million-pre-series-round https://www.wamda.com/2021/06/red-sea-farms-raises-10-million https://magnitt.com/news/16m-red-sea-farms-preseries-a-52818 https://agfundernews.com/red-sea-farms-raises-16m-from-appharvest-aramco-saltwater-ag-startup Confidence: confirmed (round 13, Red Sea Farms).
Investors: KAUST Innovation Fund, Research Products Development Company (RPDC)
Co-investment by KAUST Innovation Fund (investor/parent institution) and RPDC under the KACST Innovation Research Program; no single lead. Also: https://www.wamda.com/2019/05/kausts-red-sea-farms-closes-19m-investment https://www.arabnews.com/node/1497061/corporate-news Confidence: confirmed (round 13, KAUST).
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