Get 5 free searches. Never miss a story: Follow your favorite topics and authors to get a personalized email with the journalism that matters most to you. But really its water and food first. Founder & CEO at AppHarvest. One of the things we like to discuss as investors and when we find companies, we find businesses that we like and we want to be owners of. But with that said, what we have at AppHarvest is fairly unique. Your email address will not be published. We look forward to providing you with even more cutting-edge market research, as Topio Networks. Growing up in Appalachia, Jonathan Webb watched the slow decline of the coal industry firsthand. For young people, we've invested heavily in high school education here in this region and part of it is, we're not just building facilities, we're building an ecosystem and part of that is change the narrative that farming is simply outdoors and on a tractor, we very much respect American farmers, we have great respect for the four-season farmer that's putting food on our table but we have to get young people to think, the average age of the American farmer is about 60 years old, and so for us by investing in high schools, it's teaching young people you're operating a farm with an iPhone and iPad using industrial sensors, with robotics operating on AI. Because it is cutting-edge technology. To access all the content for free, please sign up by entering your email. For us, this year, it's less about the dollars and more about hitting our targets and we were able to hit our Q1 guidance and ramp up our facility to, later on, this year by Q4, we'll be at full capacity in Q3 and Q4, selling tomatoes out of this facility in more Kentucky. Our job at AppHarvest, we need to make sure that we're keeping prices at a fair, good place where we're at today. But for us, it's not a back-and-forth, it's not OK, well, I'm going to invest in an ESG company and I'm going to sacrifice profitability. Later, in 1993, he relocated to the United Kingdom, where he completed his LLM. AppHarvest is an indoor farming company, so has massive greenhouses Similarly, she owns yachts and private planes and serves on the board of the Women Golf Club Foundation. We arent burning through cash with pointless R&D when we can buy incredible technologies over in the Netherlands, Webb says. Let's force that rigor early. Prior to founding AppHarvest, Jonathan supported the Executive Director of the Army Office of Energy Initiatives to help meet the White House goal of supplying 20% of the Department of Defenses electricity usage from renewable 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. The High Stakes of the Roundup Cancer Lawsuit: Why Billions of Dollars are on the Line, 5 Ways to Get Money for Investment Property. It hopes to expand into leafy greens, berries, cucumbers, and bell peppers in the future. sold to the top 25 U.S. grocers. He noted that in traditional agriculture, most everything happens incrementally, But now is not a time for incrementalism the thing that needs to be added to that recipe is folks [like Webb] that want to be aggressive in getting us ready for a world where its hard to grow crops.. 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. We'll head down here and then I would start or I would end with what I started with. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice| Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information| Ad Choices We've moved most of our fruit and vegetable production down to Mexico and we're importing and shipping in 2,000 miles. His grandmother grew up in Whitley County, where a coal mining accident killed his great-grandfather. Youre reading a free article with opinions that may differ from The Motley Fools Premium Investing Services. WebThe following charts show the stock performance of securities subsequent to each open-market, non-planned trade made by Jonathan Webb. CSC Leasing: Non-dilutive Funding for AgTech Startups, Americas Cultivation Corridor: We Grow AgTech Innovation, As demand for protein grows Sustainable Planet bets on water lentils as a viable alternative to soya, How not to fail in vertical farming: Be on guard for hubris, say Indoor Ag-Con speakers, International Fresh Produce Association launches 2023 Fresh Field Catalyst Accelerator program, BREAKING: Perfect Day animal-free dairy patent in US challenged, What is the role of biotech in an ethical food system? We had 22 meetings and had almost 20 yeses. Very few passed on this deal and we eventually had to cancel meetings., Webb describes the SPAC transaction and PIPE financing experience as absolutely phenomenal.. It's the workforce that we're going to use to grow the organization. It made good logistical sense since Kentucky is within a days drive of 70% of the United States, plus there was an untapped labor force there ready and waiting to be hired. www.vbprofiles.com is now www.topionetworks.com. It's a nice evolution in the investing world that we care more and more about it. I asked on a call earlier today, well, have you had issues hiring people? Webb: The industry is at an inflection point. 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. Despite the off quarter, Webb has much to celebrate. Moving forward, AppHarvest is focused on bringing its beefsteak and on-the-vine tomatoes to market. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. That might sound straight from science fiction, but AppHarvests CTO Josh Lessing, who designed many of these universal harvesting systems says we only think that because farming has been so slow to innovate. It means transparency. In addition to his numerous social media fans, Jonathan Webb has also embraced a low-key approach to his career. Everybody has full healthcare. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your bedroom should be a serene place for you to feel rested and rejuvenated. The company is building some of the largest indoor farms in the world, combining conventional agricultural techniques with todays technology to grow non-GMO, chemical-free produce to be. When people and robots work together, its actually more productive than robots alone or people alone. On a traditional farm, there are a seemingly infinite number of tasks to do at any given moment, so adding some computers to make it more efficient doesnt mean that human farmers will be anywhere near obsolete any time soon. He practices at Mayo Clinic Hospital Eau Claire. Webb is a highly-respected knee surgeon in the United States. Webb founded it in 2017 in his native Kentucky; it became a certified B Corp two years later. Announces Separation of Julie Nelson as Chief Operating Officer Nov 16 Price target decreased to US$5.33 Nov 16 See more updates Shareholder Returns See full shareholder returns Return vs Industry: APPH underperformed the US Food industry which returned We're ramping up and scaling quickly. WebJonathan Webb grew up in Kentucky and has been committed to developing sustainable projects from Central Appalachia. All rights reserved. You have food safety concerns. Visualize this, down the rows of our facility, we have a robust that's going to take thousands of photos of a tomato plant. "We have the capital we need and we're focused on building and operating, and just head down on execution," Webb said. That's our headquarters. We talk about how, Moser: That's going to do it for us this week, folks. This article will briefly review the most important information. Why? What are you trying to accomplish? But if you look at the world, China and India account for 40% of the world's population. Let's let the consumer of our product also be the buyer in our company. Running AppHarvest this way definitely creates extra workthe company even has facilitators who help employees navigate unexpected life events that might prevent them from coming to workbut its work Webb considers essential. Tomatoes will be the first fruit rolling out of AppHarvest's soon-to-launch facility in Morehead, Kentucky. Which is important, because AppHarvest employs well over 300 people in its Morehead facility alone. It feels like this is something that really is just getting some traction here. WebJonathan Webb - Founder & CEO @ AppHarvest - Crunchbase Person Profile Person Jonathan Webb Overview Number of Founded Organizations 1 CB Rank (Person) 4,704 We don't want to be selling just to the high-end. So the problem at a macro level just started with hearing the statistic [that humanity will need] 50% to 70% more food by 2050. He is also becoming more involved with green shipping and is a council member of the London Shipping Law Centre. The show also discusses the benefits of Martha Stewart being on their board and how they plan get their products onto shelves. He completed a fellowship in Australia at North Sydney Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Centre and has worked in many high-profile clinics in the area. CEOs can get lazy and only worry about the last 90 days; thats easy. But to our investors the question and I got this on the roadshow, I'm in this to make money, great. Founded in 1993 by brothers Tom and David Gardner, The Motley Fool helps millions of people attain financial freedom through our website, podcasts, books, newspaper column, radio show, and premium investing services. I think you really keyed in on something important there, a 30-year journey. He actively engages with his followers through his various social media accounts, including Instagram and Twitter. But its confident in its approach. 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. "For us, at AppHarvest, this isn't just about a company. We can also do it by returning investors to our shareholders. We take that long term approach, we don't view things by quarter. Moser: Yeah. Its the single largest LED installation in the United States despite using constant passive solar, waters its plants using recycled rainwater, employs an integrated pest management system to avoid any pesticides, has a 30x higher production yield than traditional open field agriculture, and has the ever so modest goal of transforming the future of agriculture. After serving as an assistant public defender in Marylands Office of the Public Defender, Webb joined Ethridge Quinn for 2020. We are about to plant our first crop in a 60-acre, controlled environment, chemical-free farm. "It's hard to be the one that's looking two decades down the road while thinking of the here and now.". 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, . We have a lot of work to do ahead of us over the years to come. I don't want to keep you all day, but before we wrap it up, I did want to talk to you a little bit about ESG, environmental sustainability governance issues. MOREHEAD, Ky., Feb. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AppHarvest, Inc. (NASDAQ: APPH, APPHW), a sustainable food company, public benefit corporation and Certified B Corp building some of the worlds largest high-tech indoor farms to grow affordable, nutritious fruits and vegetables at scale while providing good jobs in You have climate disruption. Going down, scanning the plant, pest, is there a disease, brightness? Webb supported a large-scale solar project in Virginia while he was employed by the U.S. Department of Defense. My answer to that is always; sustainability is profitability. I mean, that is right in line. To make the world smarter, happier, and richer. 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. Now, we want to turn this region into an area of the country that's known for sustainable food production, but beyond just loving the place, I'm from Kentucky, beyond just loving this area, we can get to three quarters of the U.S. on a day drive. Why locate in Appalachia? "And we don't think we could do that if we weren't in the public markets.". Learn More. We have high demand for U.S.-grown and pesticide-free produce already, and when you combine that with the taste, color, and freshness of the AppHarvest model, on top of their social mission, it's driving our customers to ask for more." I graduated from the University of Kentucky. 20years ago it was renewable energy. But I dont think thats adding value to the company, or looking out for our shareholders, he said. You've had fast-food chains, that is one of the biggest risk to a grocer is the paranoia and being terrified of where that product is being grown. Again, if we look at agriculture, there's a lot of trouble in our current agriculture system and we can use ESG metrics to clean up our food supply and create better food systems. Webb: Well, the last great technological revolution in American farming is really when the tractor was introduced. 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. We've had record amounts of rainfall. "The public market needs to have a robust category of companies that are building stuff that matters," he stressed. He also has experience in civil litigation and Title IX proceedings. The estimated value when the deal closes will be about a billion dollars for the company. 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.. We'll talk a little bit about your quarterly results here in a minute because I want to get into that, but one of the things that stood out to me in the earnings call. You talk about sustainable. We have a phenomenal team of sustainability experts. WebGet Givens McNeill's email address (g*****@windstream.net) and phone number (972988.) at RocketReach. Public asset : 44,698,475 USD. Investors look at that, Peter Halt, AppHarvests newly appointed chief financial officer, told AFN. I want to figure out what I can do, as CEO, to ensure everyone has the resources to succeed. Because our services are focused on technology, 5G connectivity, and all of the different benefits we're going to get from that. Moser: Yeah, I'd tell you, I think you're right. I think that's going to be something that just continues to get into the public's mind. Those robots have collected the worlds largest data set of tomato images, and each one is equipped with cameras and a laser that creates a 3D scan of the crops in front of it to determine what needs to be done at any given moment. His Twitter account is one of the most popular on the social network. AppHarvest (APPH) CEO Jonathan Webb said the company has its eyes on the long term as it looks to "institutionalize" controlled environment agriculture (CEA). He scored 296 points for England and played in two Rugby World Cups including the 1991 final. He is a senior partner in the shipping litigation practice group, focusing on hull insurance claims, charter party disputes, and dry shipping issues. He acknowledges that scaling up so quickly in the middle of a pandemic is, almost unheard of in the current world. Executive Vice President and Head of Enterprise Development, Support Activities for Agriculture and Forestry, Contract Support (U.S. Army Office of Energy Initiatives), Intelligent Assistance and Bots Ecosystem. But if you look at the current food system today, it's high fructose corn syrup, it's sugary food that has low nutrient density. The Art of Self Meditation: What Are the Benefits? In February 2018, encouraged by investors, advisors including Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Well, you need water you need food, and you need energy. Our team is built to scale and you look at where we're at today, we've launched our first facility. For the fourth quarter Jonathan, thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to see just more about AppHarvest to talk about all the stuff that you're trying to accomplish there. The private markets can be a part of every solution we have that we're seeing today. Very excited about the Root AI transaction. Originally from Kentucky, Webb is dedicated to sustainable projects in Central Appalachia. His vision of the future of farming and much, much more. A former England international, he reached the World Cup Final in 1991 and was a two-time grand slam champion in the Five Nations. Many of our early investors have been very helpful with the company, and we knew that we are not just building one facility, we're building an organization that's going to go toe-to-toe with agriculture and food, globally. We thought in order to build an organization that's going to be selling to the top grocers. Copyright 2023 Surperformance. "We see this as a couple-decade journey, and really, we're in our first decade," Webb told Yahoo Finance's Julie Hyman at the 2022 SXSW Conference (video above). I love that passion. You mentioned your children. 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 Webb is from Kentucky, where 16% of residents are As investors were looking for the biggest market opportunities we can find, market opportunities that are growing. If I'm a grocer and I'm saying U.S.-grown in a controlled environment we solve for all that. We're farmers, we are growing fruits and vegetables, and we're utilizing sunlight, we're utilizing rainwater. 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. I have no doubt that we will. But I think there are a lot of benefits that come with that. No one else in America is doing something at that scale. Accomplish what they wanted to pursue? If were all doing that, we have a pretty phenomenal organization.. He has a particular interest in knee surgery and sports medicine. Jonathan Webb is a dual-qualified lawyer. It was clear that their work culture is infused with a pioneering mentality, and that Webb feels strongly about keeping that culture consistent as the company expands. Thank you for accessing our content on the Topio Networks Market Intelligence Center. Thank you for your continued support. I feel like with AppHarvest, at least, my takeaway, I found a lot of things that make you all special. He often sleeps in an RV outside the construction site of its second facility. We've been very fortunate and humbled that the Root AI team is fully a part of the AppHarvest team building robotics that's operating on AI, collecting data. That's not the conversation at all. Were investing heavily Webb: To put this in perspective, this was our first facility under operations, our flagship facility. AppHarvest knows its far from being the only player in the CEA game. Is there any one thing or is it a collection of many things? But the production we've left in the US is being grown in areas that are running out of water. Webb was raised in a white-bread, wealthy family. Webb: Regulators are pounding on them, consumers are pounding on them. This is becoming really a hot-button topic for a lot of investors, rightly so. His military experience allows him to leverage private capital for his projects. The applied technology company is developing and operating some of the worlds largest high-tech indoor farms. We've had 8,000 people apply to work at the company and we've hired 500 people in the middle of a global pandemic. Project Access offers ESL/ESL classes, after school programs, and computer literacy. He represented his country in 33 Test matches and played for Bristol and Bath. I think they certainly will be. Even though you entered at such a young stage of your business, You essentially were pre-revenue coming into the public markets, and now, you're just getting that started. You have illegal chemical pesticides where the EPA cannot track the chemicals being used on these farms in Mexico. WebJonathan Webb, AppHarvest Inc: Profile and Biography - Bloomberg Markets Live Now Bloomberg TV+ Leaders with Lacqua:Mark Read WPP CEO Bloomberg Radio Meet the One, our geographic location. Required fields are marked *. We want to be at Wendy's, we want to be at Walmart. The president and CEO, Paul Mastronardi said, "We want every AppHarvest tomato they can grow. AppHarvest raised $500 million on its balance sheet this year, went public on the Nasdaq, hired 400 people to work in its first facility, and brought its first product, beefsteak tomatoes, to grocery stores including Kroger, Walmart, and Publix. You have to judge yourself internally. If you look at AppHarvest, what are we doing? Thats why AI scares people, we know tech can be used just as coldly as anything else. I like thinking about a future where AppHarvest and companies like you all are helping make our food supply not only here domestically, but really around the world better, more reliable, more transparent. We dont talk about this at all in the US. Typically, you would do 40 to 60 meetings to get a couple of investors. The SPAC opportunity, let you, I think, become a publicly traded company maybe sooner than you really felt like you needed to. This helped the Army reach its goal of 20% renewable energy by 2025. A specialist in knee surgery, Jonathan Webb was a rugby union fullback for the English national team from 1987 to 1993. On this week's episode of Industry Focus: Wildcard, host Jason Moser chats with AppHarvest (APPH) founder and CEO Jonathan Webb about the growing opportunity in the agtech space, what makes AppHarvest unique, his vision of the future of farming, and much more. They have 10% of the world's freshwater. 95% of a fruit and vegetable is water. I'm one of those people growing up I went to public schools here in Kentucky. I made the point at one point in regard to AppHarvest. What's the technology that you are looking toward to help you change this space? Webb doesnt mince words on the specifics; the most valued companies in 100 years, he said, will be the ones that allow humanity to survive. He names a few: electronic vehicle manufacturers, renewable energy companies. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. The nonprofit organization he founded is still in operation today, and he continues to serve as Board Chair. Typically, you would do 40 to 60 meetings to get a couple of investors. I cant say this was the exact plan but what accelerated all of this was Covid-19, AppHarvest CEO Jonathan Webb told AFN.
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