That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. I encourage anyone to go out there Google Root AI and go check out the videos of what some of this stuff does. 2023 Fortune Media IP Limited. No, weve made some mistakes. I know you're busy. AppHarvest raised over $475 million in a public IPO, but it is not over. No one else in America is doing something at that scale. A universal harvester robot at AppHarvest's Morehead, Kentucky greenhouse, AppHarvests crops are monitored for quality control 24/7 and harvested robotically, a labor-saving advancement that lets the staff treat farming almost like a manufacturing process. By us running on completely recycled rainwater, we have no water cost. Well, I mean speaking of a publicly traded company, you just released your first-quarter results, and I think this was your first full quarter as a publicly traded company. There has been nothing more impactful on farming since that time, and now, it's AI robotics and using data to make decisions. We need to change the profits versus purpose narrative; purpose drives profit and, ultimately, is what makes an organization durable and resilient for decades to come, Webb told Fortune. You start to do the math, and realize you might need two planet earths to have enough land and water to grow that food.. And because of the work they are doing, those companies will be able to hire the brightest people, despite resignation trends. A SPAC is formed with the sole purpose of raising capital through an IPO in order to acquire an existing privately-held company and take it public. The world's food and agriculture problems are not going to be solved overnight. Webb is a consultant orthopaedic physician and a board member of World Rugby. A former England international, he reached the World Cup Final in 1991 and was a two-time grand slam champion in the Five Nations. I'm really excited to have you all as a recommendation in our service and hopefully, our members are too after talking with you today. We believe controlled environment agriculture is the third wave of sustainable infrastructure. Webb supported a large-scale solar project in Virginia while he was employed by the U.S. Department of Defense. The deal is slated to bring in $475 million in gross proceeds for Kentucky-based AppHarvest, including a private investment in public equity (PIPE) transaction Now, our job is to make sure it's at around the same price. To me, at least, it feels like we are at the [] of a disruptive phase here, and a lot of that is thanks to technology. Why locate in Appalachia? In our first month or two, we're already at all those outlets. We talk about how, He acknowledges that scaling up so quickly in the middle of a pandemic is, almost unheard of in the current world. I asked on a call earlier today, well, have you had issues hiring people? The greenhouse will cost $97 million and span 60 acres. The system it uses reportedly reduces water usage by 90% compared to traditional open-field agriculture, while also eliminating runoff. He is a senior partner in the shipping litigation practice group, focusing on hull insurance claims, charter party disputes, and dry shipping issues. The Art of Self Meditation: What Are the Benefits? Webb is from Kentucky, where 16% of residents are below the poverty line, and when the coal jobs dried up, nothing came in to replace them. They ask themselves, Did we help five people today? Maintaining that inclusive work culture, especially since he works in agriculture, is incredibly important to Webb, who aims to do everything from a place of empathy and considers his employees to be his first customers. The fired Google engineer who thought its A.I. It is a non-profit organization that provides education and social services to low-income residents living in low-income apartments. I would not want to be one of those large operators and food today when you see the consumer trends changing as quickly as they are, and we feel very optimistic again about where our growth trajectory is. No one else in America is doing something at that scale. Age : 37. 20years ago it was renewable energy. The system it uses reportedly reduces water usage by 90% compared to traditional open-field agriculture, while also eliminating runoff. WebThe combined company will be led by Jonathan Webb, AppHarvests Founder & Chief Executive Officer. My background was a part of building some of the largest solar projects in the U.S. David Lee, who joined us from Impossible Foods, joined impossible foods five years ago as their CFO and COO raised them nearly over $1 billion in the last five years and turned them into what was a boutique idea, into a mass-market product on store shelves. Jonathan received his bachelors degree from the University of Kentucky. Moving forward, AppHarvest is focused on bringing its beefsteak and on-the-vine tomatoes to market. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Tesla. Then I got to mention the area we're in, Eastern Kentucky has been known for coal mining for decades, it was known as the whole country, so to speak, and empowering the U.S. through the industrial revolution with low-cost coal. Again to some of your viewers that aren't aware of Root AI just look them up and take a look at some of those videos. Are you going to have drought? It doesn't need to be one or the other, it needs to be both, and we're happy to be a bit of a public benefit corporation and B Corp certified. If I'm a grocer and I'm saying U.S.-grown in a controlled environment we solve for all that. He has a particular interest in knee surgery and sports medicine. Get the latest news and research from AFN & AgFunder in your inbox. Webb grew up in Kentucky, and founded AppHarvest in 2017 after years in the solar development industry, based in New York. Webb founded AppHarvest in 2017, and the company was certified as a B Corp two years later. Visualize this, down the rows of our facility, we have a robust that's going to take thousands of photos of a tomato plant. Public asset : 44,698,475 USD. AppHarvest CEO envisions 'couple-decade journey' after going public How do you feel about coming public a lot earlier than you probably would've normally? Thank you for accessing our content on the Topio Networks Market Intelligence Center. Karrie, on the other hand, has not disclosed her salary or income. If people remember that ice storm back in February, our facility operated, ramping up into full capacity with no issues in the middle of a global pandemic and the middle of an ice storm. But I think there are a lot of benefits that come with that. "Tech for good the consumer wants it. The project aimed to help achieve an Obama-era goal of ensuring the militarys hundreds of installations develop resilient on-site power generation and receive 20% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2025. This helped the Army reach its goal of 20% renewable energy by 2025. If we're going to be working with the largest players in the world, then we need to be in the big leagues, and the only way to do that is to be a publicly traded company. Follow her on Twitter at @BrookeDiPalma or email her at bdipalma@yahoofinance.com. Buy These 2 Stocks in 2023 and Hold for the Next Decade, Warren Buffett's Latest $2.9 Billion Buy Brings His Total Investment in This Stock to $66 Billion in 4 Years, Prediction: These 3 S&P 500 Stocks Will at Least Double in 7 Years, Join Over Half a Million Premium Members And Get More In-Depth Stock Guidance and Research, Copyright, Trademark and Patent Information. Of course, the future is what really matters. If I were an investor, Id want my CEO on the ground with the team, not just in an office tower, he said. AppHarvest is recovering from a challenging third quarter, in which it reported a net loss of over $17 million; Webb attributes it to hyper-growth. St John Greek Orthodox Church Easter Schedule, 7 Residential Solar Maintenance Errors and How to Avoid Them, 4 Errors with Kitchen Renovations and How to Avoid Them, An Informative Guide to Livestock Transportation, A Tool That You Need If You are Into Live Stream. We're selling to Kroger, we're selling in fast food chains like Wendy's. There's a lot of different ways to go public and at the time and we did it, and I think it was definitely the best decision for us at the time. Jonathan Webb grew up in Kentucky and has been committed to developing WebJonathan Webb. Jonathan Webb poses with celebrity investor Martha Stewart and some of his signature tomatoes. Sustainable investor Equilibrium Yahoo Finance's Julie Hyman at the 2022 SXSW Conference, 3 big things in investing you might have missed this week, UPDATE 1-North Korea says US causing international arms control collapse, EU releases funds, prepares aid flight for eastern Congo, Rheinmetall in talks on building tank factory in Ukraine - report, Ukraine Latest: Metsola Urges More Sanctions Pressure on Russia. Before founding AppHarvest, Jonathan worked with the U.S. Department of Defense on the largest solar project in the Southeastern United States. But I wonder, is there something to your mind? We look forward to providing you with even more cutting-edge market research, as Topio Networks. US controlled environment agriculture (CEA) startup AppHarvest has announced a merger with NASDAQ-listed special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Novus Capital, enabling it to go public. Even with the help of AI, farm work at AppHarvest is still hard, manual labor. People are becoming more and more aware of where they get stuff and for people that question how quickly a sector can transition, I have a lot of friends that worked in the coal industry. "And we don't think we could do that if we weren't in the public markets.". To do that and look out for the long term is true sustainability, or resilience., Webb, who began his career developing renewable energy projects for the U.S. Army, believes any company is either part of destroying the planet or part of rebuilding its industry to align with the planet: I think its our obligation as CEOs to build companies that create long-standing values.. WebJonathan Webb, AppHarvest Inc: Profile and Biography - Bloomberg Markets Live Now Bloomberg TV+ Leaders with Lacqua:Mark Read WPP CEO Bloomberg Radio Meet the We're one of four companies that are publicly traded that have both of those as a company. Again, the private markets get a very bad rap socially. You can also follow him on Instagram. If you look at the largest grocers in the U.S., we're selling to Kroger, Walmart, Publix, and we're selling to Wendy's. We're in our first decade and we're going to try to look at judging the company on decade one, decade two, and decade three. I'm Jason Moser, thanks for listening, and we'll see you next week. According to AppHarvest's earnings report released Feb. 24, the company had net sales of $9.1 million and net loss of of $166.2 million in 2021. "You look at renewable energy 20 years ago, electric vehicles 10 years ago, if we want to get CEA to be institutional at scale, not only in households with consumers, you really need that rigor of the public markets and that attention of the public markets to help institutionalize an industry," he said. I think we have seen some other players in the space that are starting. The SPAC opportunity, let you, I think, become a publicly traded company maybe sooner than you really felt like you needed to. Again, for their CEO, for their team to say to them not just about money, we can have more impact at scale with AppHarvest and achieve our mission and achieve our goals by working together. Investors look at that, Peter Halt, AppHarvests newly appointed chief financial officer, told AFN. We've moved most of our fruit and vegetable production down to Mexico and we're importing and shipping in 2,000 miles. Moser: Yeah. He was made a Fellow of the British Association of Surgery on the Knee (BASK), and has since taught many international and national athletes in sports medicine. It hopes to expand into leafy greens, berries, cucumbers, and bell peppers in the future. Project Access offers ESL/ESL classes, after school programs, and computer literacy. His extensive experience and knowledge in the field have led to his reputation as a leading knee surgeon in the UK. We're really in the business of packaging up water and then shipping that out to major markets and then beyond that execution at scale. It sounds like there's a lot of potential there. Are we perfect? We've just been selling product for a matter of months. On today's show, AppHarvest Founder & CEO Jonathan Webb talks about AgTech (agriculture tech), the third wave of sustainable infrastructure. By the end of next year, we'll have five operating facilities. We hit our Q1 guidance, $2.3 million in revenue. What is AppHarvest to you? This company has plans to open two additional indoor farms in Kentucky and has already announced partnerships with the Dutch government and multiple universities to make Appalachia a hub for the agtech industry. With that difficult work that in mind, Webb has designed his company to grow as much produce as possible as sustainably as possible. I made the point at one point in regard to AppHarvest. Jeff Ubben, Inclusive Capital Partners founder and AppHarvest investor, and Jonathan Webb, AppHarvest CEO, join 'Closing Bell' to discuss what makes AppHarvest It's the workforce that we're going to use to grow the organization. He has become a prominent social media star. Making the world smarter, happier, and richer. Visualize our facility in Murray, Kentucky, it's 2.8 million square feet, nearly 50 football fields under-glass. No. A specialist in knee surgery, Webb has performed countless surgeries in elite rugby union teams. What are you trying to accomplish? I'm sitting in the heart of coal country right now. I know that you're not the only one focused on controlled environment agriculture. Growing up in Appalachia, Jonathan Webb watched the slow decline of the coal industry firsthand. sold to the top 25 U.S. grocers. Yes, maybe we're paying marginally more in the short-term, but that workforce is the one that's beating production targets daily. Cell ag experts weigh in, Keep calm and carry on: Navigating the trough of disillusionment for plant-based meat, Its been a very dark week Miyoko Schinner hits back as company accuses her of hatching plot to steal IP, With $3bn in deals, top 10 climate x agrifoodtech startups prove themselves a vital part of climate tech ecosystem, BII eyes full-stack startups, ag marketplaces & embedded financing as it earmarks funds for Africa, Smoke & mirrors, not worth the extra cost: 50 US farmers speak out on carbon markets. According to Webb, going public has helped the company focus on the big picture. Most people every day are just concerned about can they put food on the table? But I wanted to ask you before we do, the Root AI acquisition. Learn More. AppHarvest, which went public in February in an IPO that brought it $475 million in gross proceeds, is an ambitious venture. Webb: Well, the last great technological revolution in American farming is really when the tractor was introduced. All of our water is captured on our roof. WebJonathan Webb grew up in Kentucky and has been committed to developing sustainable projects from Central Appalachia. He has also held roles in movies and television series. We take that long term approach, we don't view things by quarter. He pointed out that, At NASA in the 60s, if you would go visit a facility and you walked up to a janitor and asked, What do you do here? they would say, Im working to put a man on the moon. Thats been the same mentality here Its the collective thats making this thing possible.. Photo credit: US controlled environment agriculture (CEA) startup, has announced a merger with NASDAQ-listed special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), The deal is slated to bring in $475 million in gross proceeds for Kentucky-based AppHarvest, including a private investment in public equity (PIPE) transaction worth $375 million from existing and new investors including, I cant say this was the exact plan but what accelerated all of this was Covid-19, AppHarvest CEO Jonathan Webb told, . Jason Moser has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Yes, we're using nature for what it's good. But if you look at all the problems in the agriculture system, this industry really solves most of those problems. AppHarvest has invested in a 2.76million-square-foot greenhouse in Morehead (Ky.) to help meet this goal. Jonathan Webb is the Founder and CEO of AppHarvest, a company that combines conventional agricultural techniques with cutting-edge technology to address I feel like with AppHarvest, at least, my takeaway, I found a lot of things that make you all special. Its easier than ever to find a trustworthy doctor. Remember, you can always reach out to us on Twitter at @MFIndustryFocus, or drop us an email at [emailprotected] As always, people on the program may have interest in the stocks they talk about and The Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against, so don't buy or sell stocks based solely on what you hear. I want to talk with you about in regard to AppHarvest. What's that Harvest's secret sauce? This is still a very new space though. Because our services are focused on technology, 5G connectivity, and all of the different benefits we're going to get from that. We can better understand what product we are going to have available? A Bull Market Is Coming: 3 Reasons to Buy Costco Stock, 3 Top Stocks to Buy Now to Prepare for a Bull Market, 2 Exceptional Growth Stocks to Own in 2023, 2 No-Brainer Stocks to Buy During a Stock Market Plunge, 3 Robinhood Stocks to Buy and Hold Forever, 2 Reasons to Avoid a Roth 401(k) for Your Retirement Savings, Want $1 Million in Retirement? But the journey hasnt been without pitfalls. We're focused on bringing that production back from Mexico that has been shifted outside of the U.S. and bring that back into the U.S. in a controlled environment. The nonprofit organization he founded is still in operation today, and he continues to serve as Board Chair. Now, his company AppHarvest (the name is a play on both Appalachia and the high-tech nature of what they do), operates a sixty acre greenhouse in Morehead, Kentucky that grows hydroponic tomatoes up to the ceiling. I love that passion. Did we help them reach their goals? You have illegal chemical pesticides where the EPA cannot track the chemicals being used on these farms in Mexico. But its confident in its approach. Thanks as always to Tim Sparks for putting the show together for us. I did want to know here because I saw this in the earnings release and I just thought it was one of those quotes that stood out to me from Mastronardi, your distributor. The regulators are pushing that direction. We pay every employee at AppHarvest a living wage. AppHarvest reaffirms guidance on full-year 2021 net revenue of $21 million and Adjusted EBITDA of ($41) million provided during its Analyst Day presentation on December 15, 2020. Despite IPOs last year having the worst returns in a decade, Webb said he believed 2021 was an important time for the company to go public and stood by the decision to take the company's mission "directly to the Street" and to receive the "rigor of Wall Street early," which he claimed will only make the company "stronger in the long run.".