Tidal Ventures has led an $825,000 pre-seed investment round in indoor horticulture management system company Blakthumb.
Other investors in the round include Afterwork Ventures, Black Nova Venture Capital and Sydney and Melbourne family office LUXEM.
Tidal Ventures notes that over the past decade technology developed for the indoor horticulture market has focused on environmental control and compliance. Almost all the advances have been in hardware systems, such as vertical racking, nutrient mixes and LED lights, compliance software and sensor technologies.
The operational side of growing plants – management of people and processes – has been almost entirely ignored. As the industry matures, Tidal Ventures sees this as becoming increasingly important for growers to maintain competitiveness.
Sydney-based Blakthumb founders Mel Fyfe and Carey Taylor are focusing on the legal cannabis production industry in the US initially, but see their technology as also having applications across all indoor horticulture including food production.
AfterWork Ventures notes that legal cannabis sales in the US increased by 67% in 2020 and the global legal cannabis industry was estimated to be worth $US21 billion annually with projections estimating that it will grow to $US150-$US200 billion by 2030.
At present only 19 US states have legalised cannabis for recreational use but 39 have legalised it for medicinal use and there is an increasingly rapid flow on of legalisation for recreational use following medicinal legalisation.
Fyfe and Taylor started out in 2016 as growers but eventually recognised that they could have the greatest effect on improving indoor horticulture by focusing on developing a digital management system for growers.
Image: Blakthumb founders Mel Fyfe and Carey Taylor.