AppHarvest to acquire Root AI,

AppHarvest, a AgTech company and Certified B Corp focused on farming more sustainably using 90% less water than open-field agriculture and only recycled rainwater, has acquired Root AI, an artificial intelligence farming startup that creates intelligent robots to help manage high-tech indoor farms. AppHarvest is investing approximately $60m, consisting of approximately $10m in cash and the balance in AppHarvest common shares, to acquire Root AI. The Company will issue approximately 2.3m shares for the transaction. The acquisition of Root AI and its robotic universal harvester, Virgo, is expected to provide AppHarvest with a baseline of harvesting support working alongside crop care specialists focused on more complex tasks. AppHarvest expects the game-changing advantage of the technology to be in the data the robots can collect as they harvest, which can help evaluate crop health, precisely predict yield and optimize overall operations of the controlled environment agriculture facility. “Farming as we’ve known it is broken because of the increasing number of variables such as extreme weather, droughts, fire and contamination by animals that make our food system unreliable. Indoor farming solves for many of those challenges, and the data gathered can exponentially deliver more insights that help us predict and control crop quality and yield,” Jonathan Webb, AppHarvest Founder & CEO.