If you Google “Peak Meat”, in 0.59 seconds you’ll be served up with about 88 million search results, a few thumbnail images of meat, some graphs showing trends in supply, photos of rather sad looking cows … and a quote from a recent Guardian article:

“The fast growth of plant-based alternatives to animal products could mean Europe and North America will reach “peak meat” by 2025, at which point consumption of conventional meat starts to fall…”

The article goes on to talk about the environmental impact of Peak Meat, and how reversing a trend that has lasted for thousands of years will see us avoid a billion tonnes of CO2 emissions, save upwards of 50 billion chickens from slaughter, and see a landmass the size of the UK freed up from live stock for use in agriculture…

…. and yet no one’s thinking about another mega trend on the horizon: global farming is fast approaching “Peak Labour”.

According to the UN, by 2050 we’re expecting a trifecta of influences: i) the global population booming to 9.7 billion people; ii) 68% of people in the developing world will migrate from rural to urban areas, and with that  iii) up to100 million farmers will be lost from our global food supply chain.

With more mouths to feed, and less labour working to feed them, it’s no wonder that of the UN’s 17 Social Development Goals, five have direct links to supporting the incredible strain we will be placing on our fragile food supply.

Add to that an increasingly inconsistent climate with a rapid uptick in unusual weather events including droughts, wild fires and floods - all of which have the potential to decimate full yields of crops - and the future starts to look a little bleak.

Welcome Alesca Life, one of a new wave of Precision Farming businesses that is set to disrupt global agriculture.

Alesca is a company that we believe has a serious opportunity to dominate farm-management and smart crop monitoring. With more than 70,000 collective hours of dedicated in-house R&D and commercial operations, the company has catalogued the conditions for optimum yield output for more than 30 varieties of plants and mapped this to a full suite of comprehensive software and hardware products, covering plant health surveillance, environmental monitoring, farm management software and modular indoor farming units. These crops are non-GMO, use no pesticides and able to grow more kilograms of produce per dollar of invested capital than through competitive farming systems.

Whether bundled or bought in modules, these technologies can integrate with and drive the full spectrum of farming enterprise clients, from traditional farms to indoor farms and greenhouses, to greenfield projects.

With production for the delivery of an initial 500 units, as part of an expected full roll-out of 30,000 modular indoor farms over the next decade, Alesca has a real chance to become the backbone of farming 4.0 with by far the largest production capacity across its clients’ combined infrastructure.

Demand is brisk. With a pipeline of more than USD 750m in farm roll-outs, Alesca is effectively positioned to become the indoor farming indoor standard, able to push the latest operational processes directly to its clients’ devices over-the-air, and consistently deliver improvements to future farming yields. Key productivity benefits include:

·       90%-99% less land needed

·       90%-99% less water consumption per ton of crop

·       The world’s highest capital efficiency LED lighting, to provide best-in-class yield per capex dollar amongst its peers

Importantly, Alesca has already demonstrated a >5x improvement on labour efficiency. With Peak Labour fast approaching as 100 million farmers are lost from rural locations, cities will be able to re-engage this workforce in urban farming environments – closer to the customer.

Zero Hunger. Good Health and Well Being. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure. Sustainable Cities and Communities. Responsible Consumption and Production…. Someone had better send a memo to the UN to let them know their 17 SDGs just became 12 – Alesca’s got these ones all wrapped up!

With a total addressable market (TAM) of more than USD 160 billion across Smart Crop Monitoring and Indoor Farming, and coming on the back of a series of blockbuster SPAC announcements from Indoor Farming Operators such as AeroFarms and AppHarvest, both of which announced plans to list via SPACs with valuations north of USD 1 billion in Q1, investor appetite (pardon the pun – but sometimes you’ve got to lettuce have a little fun in these articles) is at an all-time high for AgriTech businesses.

Disclosure of interest: North Ridge Partners, has partnered with Alesca to advise on its Series B fund raising. Please reach out to Kevin Waller on kw@northridgepartners.com for more detail if AgriTech floats your boat!

Kevin Waller - Partner - North Ridge Partners

Singapore, May 2021