In the region’s largest AgTech investment to date, Saudi’s Red Sea Farms has received $10 million in venture capital funding from a group of Saudi and UAE investors.
The funding is led by Saudi and UAE investors including the Aramco entrepreneurship arm Wa’ed, the non-profit foundation Future Investment Initiative Institute, King Abdullah University for Science & Technology (KAUST) – where Red Sea Farms is based – and Global Ventures, a UAE venture capital group.
“The Red Sea Farms investment reflects our decade-long commitment to the Saudi start-up sector, where Wa’ed has deployed more than $100m in venture capital investments and loans to more than 100 entrepreneurs,” said Wassim Basrawi, the managing director of Wa’ed.
“Red Sea Farms is a good example of a game-changing start-up whose innovations not only can transform markets but improve life for everyone in the kingdom,” he continued.
The investment in Red Sea Farms, whose technology enables the commercial farming of produce using primarily salt water, reflects the GCC’s growing investor interest in sustainable farming solutions that can combat pandemics and global supply chain disruptions.
Wa’ed Ventures
Red Sea Farms plans to use the funding to build and retrofit more than six hectares of commercial farming operations in central and western Saudi Arabia. The company currently operates a salt-water pilot greenhouse at the KAUST Research & Technology Park.
“We are proud to have designed, developed and delivered one of the world’s most sustainable agricultural systems from our base in Saudi Arabia,” said Ryan Lefers, Red Sea’s chief executive, who along with professors Mark Tester, chief scientist; and Derya Baran, chief engineer; co-founded Red Sea Farms.
“The investment from our new partners will help us improve global food security while reducing the carbon and fresh-water footprint,” he added.
Through a patented system of new, more efficient solar and growth monitoring technologies, salt water replaces fresh water typically used to cool greenhouses and irrigate crops.
Kevin Cullen, the vice president of innovation and economic development KAUST
“KAUST is powering an emerging deep tech start-up ecosystem in Saudi Arabia – and Red Sea Farms is helping to drive this revolution. The start-up is the product of many years of research in KAUST labs, now commercialised and ready to change the face of agriculture in the Middle East and other water-scarce regions,” said Kevin Cullen, the vice president of innovation and economic development KAUST.
Red Sea Farms was established in 2018 with a vision to reduce food insecurity, carbon and fresh water use in the global and GCC food sectors. The company’s end-to-end growing system primarily uses salt water, cutting fresh-water consumption by 85 to 90 percent.
“We’re thrilled to partner with Red Sea Farms. With the earth’s resources depleting at an alarming rate, food and water security have become pressing global challenges,” said Noor Sweid, general partner at Global Ventures.
“Powered by KAUST’s ecosystem of scientific and tech knowledge, Red Sea Farms is envisioning sustainable and innovative ways of addressing these issues in the region and the world, with the ultimate objective of leaving our planet better than we found it for the generations to come,” she added.
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