Cycle Capital Management (CCM)\u00a0has announced a new investment for Seed Fund Cycle-C3E, LP: $1.3 million in Lufa Farms Inc., an urban farming company.<\/p>\n
This new company, headed by a dynamic young entrepreneur who has captured the interest of angel investors in Canada, New Zealand and the U.S., favourably meets the business model sought by Cycle Capital. For Andr\u00e9e-Lise M\u00e9thot, Founder and Senior Partner of Cycle Capital Management (CCM) Inc., \u201cThis decision represents an innovative investment that will have significant impact as it changes the way in which we produce and consume in a sector as vital as the food industry. The future of technologies also depends on solutions that will make it possible to feed large urban centres by efficiently using local and cutting-edge production methods, and that\u2019s what Lufa Farms offers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company is building two additional farms in the Montreal area and is planning more in Toronto, Boston, New York, and Chicago. \u201cOur new facilities will clearly establish us as the strongest and most advanced fresh-food farm operator in the urban agriculture arena by putting well over 200,000 square feet of rooftops under cultivation,\u201d said Mohammed Hage, CEO of Lufa Farms. \u201cWhen we\u2019ve completed this round, more than 5,000 families will be buying freshly harvested, high-quality fruits, vegetables and herbs from Lufa Farms every week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moreover, for Dave Furneaux, cofounder, chairman of the board and investor in Lufa Farms through Furneaux Capital, LLC, \u201cProducing food in urban centres is a big idea with massive positive benefits to the world. After spending two years learning about the state of the urban farming and food production movement, it became clear to me that Lufa Farms has the lead and the most advanced and innovative food production platform,\u00a0the right business model,\u00a0and a vision for future global expansion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms. \u00c9laine Zaka\u00efb, Minister for Industrial Policy and the Banque de d\u00e9veloppement \u00e9conomique du Qu\u00e9bec, was also\u00a0excited by this news.\u00a0\u201cI firmly believe in economic development that respects the fundamental principles of sustainable development, and I intend to carry this vision forward. The Lufa Farms project is completely in line with our government\u2019s strategy. It is an innovative initiative that\u2019s part of the current urban farming trend. Lufa Farms\u2019 executives clearly show that it is possible to create economic growth with a responsible, green approach. It\u2019s now up to us to export this technology worldwide,\u201d said Ms. Zaka\u00efb.<\/p>\n
About Lufa Farms<\/p>\n
Lufa Farms is a Quebec-based urban farming enterprise that grows fresh vegetables in rooftop greenhouses located in cities. The company created the world\u2019s first commercial-scale rooftop greenhouse farm in 2010 on the roof of a commercial office building in Montreal\u2019s Ahuntsic-Cartierville area. In its first year of operation, the farm produced more than 250 tons of fresh, herbicide-free, pesticide-free and fungicide-free fresh produce. The vegetables grown by Lufa Farms are harvested daily and delivered directly to area consumers.<\/p>\n
About Cycle Capital Management (CCM) Inc.<\/p>\n
Cycle Capital is a pioneer among Canadian venture capital funds focused on the cleantech sector. The fund invests in companies developing and commercializing clean technologies and projects in renewable energy generation that are focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, optimizing resources use, and decreasing impacts over their entire life cycle.<\/p>\n
With nearly $125\u00a0million under management, Cycle Capital invests primarily in Northeastern North America. The fund has assembled a team of investment professionals, advisors and strategic partners, internationally respected for their combined experience in building, nurturing and growing world-class companies. Cycle Capital benefits from a privileged relationship with its strategic partners including Brookfield Renewable Power, Rio Tinto Alcan, Cascades, The Master Group L.P., Lonza, Gaz M\u00e9tro, Systemex Energies and the Center of Excellence in Energy Efficiency (C3E).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cycle Capital Management (CCM)\u00a0has announced a new investment for Seed Fund Cycle-C3E, LP: $1.3 million in Lufa Farms Inc., an urban farming company. This new company, headed by a dynamic young entrepreneur who has captured the interest of angel investors in Canada, New Zealand and the U.S., favourably meets the business model sought by Cycle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cyclecapital.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cyclecapital.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cyclecapital.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cyclecapital.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cyclecapital.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cyclecapital.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7042\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cyclecapital.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cyclecapital.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cyclecapital.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}