Silicon Gorge: Where Are They Now? LettUs Grow

As we gear up for the Silicon Gorge Investor Showcase later this week, we caught up with Jack Farmer, Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder at LettUs Grow, one of our standout alumni from the 2017 cohort.

The Bristol-based agricultural technology scaleup was founded in 2015 by Charlie Guy (CEO), Jack Farmer (CSO) and Ben Crowther (CTO) with a bold mission: to reduce the carbon cost of fresh produce by allowing anybody to grow and consume it near the point of consumption.

Back in 2017, LettUs Grow took to the Silicon Gorge stage and secured their first investment. It was an early boost that helped them bring their mission to life. The initial funding paved the way to develop their core aeroponic technology and build their first working prototypes.

Fast forward to today, and the team has gone from strength to strength. They’ve developed their own ultrasonic atomiser, finalised their rolling bench aeroponic system and grown a great team – all working to revolutionise sustainable food production.

In our interview with Jack, he talked more about their journey from pitching for the first time at Silicon Gorge to becoming one of the UK’s leading vertical farming pioneers. Here’s what he had to say:

About LettUs Grow & Their Work

1.) Can you introduce LettUs Grow and explain what your organisation does?

LettUs Grow is a Bristol-based agricultural technology scaleup, established in 2015, making it nearly 10 years old. We design aeroponic technology for greenhouses and vertical farms. Our innovative approach involves integrating ultrasonic atomizers into their irrigation systems, which turn water into a nutrient-rich mist.

This mist increases oxygen availability in the root zone, promoting healthier and faster plant growth. LettUs Grow has been developing this technology to enhance agricultural productivity ever since its founding.

2.) What inspired you to start LettUs Grow and what problem were you aiming to solve?

We set up LettUs Grow to address challenges relating to food waste and climate change. Our core objective was to develop technology enabling greater food production with fewer resources, and our aeroponic systems achieve that.

By utilising less water and land area, LettUs Grow’s technology facilitates approximately 20% higher yields in greenhouses and vertical farms with only marginal increases in electricity consumption.

This enhanced efficiency contributes to mitigating food security challenges and reducing the carbon footprint associated with transporting fresh produce, particularly when you start bringing in renewable energy into aeroponic facilities.

This initial inspiration has become increasingly central to LettUs Grow’s mission as the business has grown.

Mission & Impact

3.) What is the LettUs Grow mission? 

LettUs Grow’s mission has been the same since the start, which is to reduce the carbon cost of fresh produce by allowing anybody to grow and consume it near the point of consumption.

4.) How does your technology differ from traditional farming methods and what benefits does it offer?

LettUs Grow mainly serves the glasshouse industry, a well-established agricultural method with roots dating back to the early 20th century. Today, glasshouses are the primary source for a significant portion of berry and salad crops, including cucumbers, tomatoes, and to a lesser extent, various leafy greens.

Within this sector, the common irrigation technique is hydroponics, where a solution of nutrients and water is directly supplied to the plant roots. LettUs Grow differentiates itself by introducing ultrasound technology to transform this nutrient-rich water into a fine mist.

The key advantage of this aeroponic approach is that plants grow with their roots suspended in this mist-filled environment, which promotes the development of exceptionally healthy root systems. The plants have advanced absorption of both air and water leading to a significantly healthier root zone and improved overall plant health.

5). What do you think makes this region such an exciting place for innovative tech businesses like LettUs Grow?

For us, being based in Bristol and the surrounding area, the most exciting thing has been the access to talented people. It’s not necessarily that this region has a large farming or agricultural technology sector.

You currently find bigger clusters around Cheshire, Lincolnshire and East Anglia. What we’ve instead found here is that it’s a fantastic place to attract and retain talented staff, often straight from university or just after graduating, with all sorts of different skills – whether it’s software, hardware, commercial, or biology.

We’ve been able to build a team that has a grounded understanding of horticulture and is really open to working with others in the industry to help the sector progress. That’s why we’re still considered one of the most innovative in the industry.

Journey Since Silicon Gorge

6.) Since showcasing at Silicon Gorge in 2017, what have LettUs Grow been up to?

Over the years, we’ve probably tried out two or three different ways of doing business. We started right away by putting our equipment into shipping containers and selling them as complete units for over £100,000 each. That worked well for a few years.

Then, as our technology matured, we felt we could compete on price for bigger, industrial-sized glasshouse projects. So now, we mainly license our designs, tech and the know-how to the companies that construct large greenhouses or vertical farms. We have a team of about 20 people focused on that right now.

We were also really pleased to help spin-out a separate software company called Ostara, which is now run by our former colleagues Dan and Adam. They’re also a big part of the tech scene here in Bristol at the moment.

7.) Can you share any key milestones or successes the company has achieved since then?

Some of our key achievements have been developing our own ultrasonic atomiser and its casing, whilst finishing the design of our aeroponic rolling bench system, especially making it cost-effective for large-scale farms, which was really important.

We’ve managed to hit these milestones over the last few years. Before that, I’d say reaching our first million pounds in sales, building such a great team, and achieving that 20% better growth performance versus the status quo – each was a really big step forward for us.

8.) How has Silicon Gorge and techSPARK helped you on your journey?

Well, they were really important in the early days. They allowed us to get our first bit of funding. Having the chance to pitch our idea to local angel investors back in 2017 was crucial.

That first investment let us develop our core technology and build our first prototypes. It also helped us attract our first venture capital funding, which has been how we’ve largely funded the company since then.

Learnings & Advice

9.) Have there been any unexpected challenges or lessons that you have learned along the way?

I think you always hear that your business will shift and change as it grows, which is true. One of the specific challenges we faced was that we were lucky enough to get investment during a time when vertical farming was really hyped up. These systems are still valuable in the horticulture world, but it was super popular for a while with investors and oversold. When you secure and use investment during that kind of hype-cycle it’s tricky to chart the right long-term plan for the business. I think we navigated that pretty well but you could argue that our move into container farming was partly a response to what investors were really interested in at the time. Where we are now, with this quite efficient business model of licensing our technology, is probably where we could have ended up a few years earlier if that hype around vertical farming hadn’t been so strong.

So, I guess what we’ve learned from that is to really focus on keeping the business as straightforward and profitable as possible. We try to build that into how we design our systems and how we run the company, so everyone knows what they’re doing. 

10.) What advice would you give to other startups looking to take part in Silicon Gorge or seeking investment?

I’d definitely say it’s worth doing to build your profile. When I’m putting together a pitch, I try to make sure that when read together, the heading of each slide tells a really simple, bullet-point-like story. Try to make sure your narrative flows logically from one slide to the next and can be easily understood just from your slide titles.

I’d also make sure that your business idea can actually make money! Try not to create a business where you just spend more and more to service demand as you grow – at some point your overheads growth should decouple from revenue. Aim for a business plan where the invested money takes you to a clear inflection point where you become profitable on your own. 

This early planning (and getting the right people to help you with that plan) is something I’d focus on if I were starting a business again. I’d really suggest putting effort into it early on, because you’ll never have the same clear headspace as you do at the very beginning. It gets busy once you’re actually running the business and trying to sell to customers – they will rightly take up a lot of your time and mental energy!