Consumer Agritech is COVID-19’s Victory Garden
In the wake of COVID-19, start-ups and VCs will take a hit; the nature of sourcing VC deals through in-person meetings will slow down and due diligence process and deal sizes will be smaller. In addition, several start-ups are seeing massive layoffs in the wake of COVID-19: according to the New York Times, more than 50 start-ups have cut ~6,000 employees in the last few weeks. Notable examples of this are Bird, which laid off 30% of their workforce, and Rent the Runway, which laid off their retail division. It’s worth noting, though, that companies whose raison d’etre perfectly align with quarantine lifestyles could see a boost. Obvious winners that have emerged in this moment are companies like Zoom, Amazon, and Peloton, but a slow and steady winner could be consumer agritech; these companies are well-positioned to reap what they sow if they effectively message product and tech benefits to catalyze their place among consumers and VCs alike.
People likening COVID-19 to a World War — at a time when the world is at a stand-still, folks are concerned about food security, and the prospect of leaving the comfort of home may be daunting. If COVID-19 is akin to a World War, the 21st-century zeitgeist around having a green thumb and growing your own produce (both to help the environment, limit exposure to the virus, and bring happiness to those stuck indoors) is today’s equivalent to WWII Victory Garden to boost morale during a trying time. This trend will likely have the greatest impact in urban areas, where populations are highly concentrated, grocery stores are laden with germs, social distancing is harder than ever, and where little bits of greenery go a long way.
Taken together, quarantined urban professionals, who at this time of year are wont to emerge from their period of winter hibernation and spend their springtime outdoors, may be more inclined in this uncertain environment to exert control over their food supply by growing their own herbs and vegetables. But tech will be a key ingredient in this recipe for self-sufficiency unlike “victory gardens” past.
This aforementioned trend is not nascent, but it has certainly been augmented by recent events. Even pre-Pandemic, urban gardening has been on the rise: according to J. Walter Thompson’s Future 100 2020 report, people are taking a “biocontributive” approach to sustainability, moving beyond carbon neutrality toward a world in which people are actively contributing toward an energy-positive future. Mainstream consumers have been opting out of unsustainable food and drinks and opting into comparable sustainable choices; “biodiverse dining” is emerging as a trend to cater to consumers concerned with their environmental impact, and food brands are beginning to adopt regenerative agriculture techniques with healthier soil to fight climate change.
Consumer agritech firms, therefore, are poised to ride the wave of this trend, codifying and consolidating gardening tips we’re now seeing in YouTube videos, gardening forums, and articles into user-friendly tech-enabled tools and apps that leverage relevant information to help consumers effectively grow plants.
Several early-stage companies in the space have given new meaning to the word “seed” round. Many have sprouted in the past five years and are software driven — some even include physical product (e.g. soil and seeds). GrowSquares, a Brooklyn-based seed-stage start-up set to launch this spring, is a full-service customized and network solution for urban gardening. Its two-part system for personalized urban gardening includes an app that analyzes microclimate, recommends plants, and guides users through the gardening process. It then recommends (and ships) modular, sustainable squares that contain seeds, nutrients, and soil with no planting required that will yield herbs and vegetables. Other companies have also embraced software to optimize growing results (though these lack the aforementioned combination of customization and technology) like Grobo — an at-home hydroponics solution — and Click and Grow — a smart and compact indoor urban garden that allows you to grow your own herbs.
As spring rolls in, April showers may bring May flowers — and an uptick in adoption of these new agritech products. They will enable consumers to have agency in a time of crisis, reduce their carbon footprint, provide a small sense of purpose, and allow them to literally reap what they sow: using their homegrown herbs and vegetables as their food that fuels them. We will have to wait and see if these 21st-century Victory Gardens yield victory for these companies’ founders and investors, but trend reports and our current state of the world may suggest that they will win big.
