Equilibrium has closed its Controlled Environment Foods Fund II at $1.022 billion.
Like Equilibrium’s predecessor CEA fund, its CEFF II strategy is focused on high-tech greenhouses, indoor farms, and other CEA segments of alternative proteins and aquaculture. CEFF II’s final close exceeded its targeted $500 million. Both Equilibrium CEF funds are institutional investor-led, reflecting investors’ belief in the CEA transformational shift in agriculture.
CEFF II will invest primarily across North America and has made three investments to date – two in the US and one in Mexico. Principal areas of investment include the more mature high wire crops of tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers, as well as the emerging categories of leafy greens and berries.
"Ground zero"
“Agriculture is ground zero for sustainable use of our natural resources, climate risk, and climate adaptation,” notes Dave Chen, CEO, Equilibrium. “In the next decades, the agriculture industry, globally, will be called on to provide more food, more safely, of higher quality, with greater diversity, in a more climate-challenged world with a shrinking arable, and more inhospitable, landscape. CEA addresses many of these emerging global realities. Equilibrium’s CEFF II provides the companies in greenhouse agriculture and CEA access to large blocks of capital, enabling operators to scale at the pace of the market’s growth,” adds Dave.
Investors and retailers are increasingly looking for more sustainable and less volatile ways to invest in and scale agriculture. CEA shifts agriculture from a land-centered industry where the land, geography, and weather determine what can grow, into a climate-resilient industry that can now focus on the consumer’s demand for the fresh, safe, and regional fruits and vegetables they want to eat.
Equilibrium