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Intelligent Growth Solutions
Intelligent Growth Solutions was founded in 2013 by Scottish entrepreneur Sir Henry Aykroyd and a team of engineers in Edinburgh.
Intelligent Growth Solutions
Intelligent Growth Solutions was founded in 2013 by Scottish entrepreneur Sir Henry Aykroyd and a team of engineers in Edinburgh. David Farquhar, a technology veteran with a background in the semiconductor industry, joined as CEO and has led the company's evolution from an R&D project into a manufacturer of controlled-environment agriculture systems. IGS does not grow produce itself — it sells the hardware, controls, and software platform to commercial growers, retailers, and institutions. IGS deploys vertical farming towers inside standard industrial buildings, not bespoke greenhouses. The core hardware is a 12-meter high tower with trays for growing leafy greens, herbs, berries, and starter plants for tree crops. The company's differentiator is a patented three-phase power management system that supplies electricity to LED lights, irrigation, and climate controls in 50-second cycles, reducing peak load by up to 50% compared to continuous power designs. A single four-tower unit can produce the equivalent of 2 hectares of outdoor farmland. In 2022, the firm raised £42.2 million in a Series B round from a consortium including COFRA, Ospraie Ag Science, and the Scottish National Investment Bank (per Sifted, 2022). The company has deployed systems in the UK, the US, and the Middle East. IGS is privately held with roughly 200 employees as of 2022. The company operates from an R&D facility and assembly plant at the James Hutton Institute campus outside Dundee, where it maintains a demonstration crop-research center. In August 2024, IGS opened a new global headquarters in Edinburgh to house engineering, software development, and commercial teams, signaling transition from startup to scale-up (per the firm, August 2024). IGS has not disclosed total revenue or deployment volume publicly. IGS's structural differentiator is not the farming — it is the power architecture. By managing electricity as a gated resource rather than a continuous supply, the company makes vertical farming viable in regions with expensive or unreliable grid energy. This also makes the towers attractive for co-location with renewable generation, a use case IGS actively markets to Gulf states with excess solar capacity. The company sells the system and then retains a recurring software-and-services relationship rather than pursuing a farm-operator model.
General information
Firm type
other
Year founded
2013
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
Europe
Country
United Kingdom
City
Edinburgh
Corporate office
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Principals
David Farquhar
CEO
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Does IGS operate farms or sell equipment?
IGS manufactures and sells the hardware, control systems, and software that make vertical farming possible. The company does not own or operate commercial farms — it supplies the technology platform to operators, retailers, and institutions who use it to grow crops inside standard industrial buildings. This asset-light model lets growers own their own production infrastructure while IGS provides ongoing engineering and remote support.
How does IGS's power management system reduce electricity costs?
IGS uses a patented three-phase power system that distributes electricity to lights, irrigation pumps, and climate controls in short, timed cycles rather than as a continuous supply. A 50-second cycle manages the entire tower's load, cutting peak electrical demand by approximately half compared to vertical farms that run all systems simultaneously. This makes the towers particularly suited to locations where grid power is expensive or intermittent.
What crops can be grown inside an IGS tower?
IGS growth towers are designed primarily for high-density leafy greens, microgreens, herbs, and brassica seedlings. The company has also grown soft fruits and tree-crop starter plants in trial environments at its demonstration facility outside Dundee. Root vegetables and tall-stem crops like corn or wheat remain outside the system's current production envelope due to the tower's physical geometry.
Who invested in IGS's Series B round, and what was the capital for?
IGS raised £42.2 million in a Series B funding round announced in 2022 (per Sifted, 2022). The investor consortium included COFRA, a private holding company tied to the Brenninkmeijer family, Ospraie Ag Science, the Scottish National Investment Bank, and several existing shareholders. The company stated the capital would fund expansion of its Dundee assembly capacity and accelerate deployments in North America and the Middle East.
Where has IGS deployed operational vertical farm systems?
The company has confirmed installations in the United Kingdom, including a demonstration crop-research center at the James Hutton Institute near Dundee, customer sites in the United States, and at least one project in the Middle East, where IGS has targeted markets with access to low-cost solar energy. In 2023, IGS announced a partnership with Dubai-based ReFarm to build a large-scale waste-to-farm facility.
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