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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. You are speaking our language here at The Fool. The agriculture-tech startup raised $250,000 in its first round of seed capital in February 2018, AppHarvest CEO and founder Jonathan Webb told Insider. Jonathan Webb currently follows over 1 million people. 20years ago it was renewable energy. Do the hard work to create shareholder value now while also looking out for shareholders two decades from now, Webb said is his credo. I made the point at one point in regard to AppHarvest. Every year, he gives a lecture to students enrolled in a post-graduate shipping LLM program. WebJonathan Webb, CEO, AppHarvest: AgTech Farming for Our Planets Future. Her estimated net worth is more than $15 million. Thanks as always to Tim Sparks for putting the show together for us. I think it's clear that investors should really be excited for the future of AgTech. You can also compare Dr. Webb with other orthopedic surgeons in Eau Claire to find the one that best suits your needs. I want to talk with you about in regard to AppHarvest. This article will briefly review the most important information. The human spirit is willing to do a lot. This year alone, more than 50 SPACs have been formed in the US, collectively raising. Moser: Well, you said it on the call. We arent burning through cash with pointless R&D when we can buy incredible technologies over in the Netherlands, Webb says. The companys first greenhouse will span 60 acres and open in 2020 in Morehead, Ky.The greenhouse will operate entirely on rainwater using a 10-acre retention pond, reducing water usage by 80% compared to a typical farm. 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. The history of the world is in many ways the history of technology, and of our reactions to it. Visualize this, down the rows of our facility, we have a robust that's going to take thousands of photos of a tomato plant. It's the workforce that we're going to use to grow the organization. It means being a little bit more upfront with your investors. No one else in America is doing something at that scale. AppHarvest. He is a senior partner in the shipping litigation practice group, focusing on hull insurance claims, charter party disputes, and dry shipping issues. So the problem at a macro level just started with hearing the statistic [that humanity will need] 50% to 70% more food by 2050. Because it is cutting-edge technology. A specialist in knee surgery, Webb has performed countless surgeries in elite rugby union teams. Most people every day are just concerned about can they put food on the table? Webb, a Kentucky native and University of Kentucky graduate, says he remains committed to his goal of employing large numbers of people at high-tech farms around the eastern half of the state. We use completely recycled rainwater. 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. Your email address will not be published. We're ramping up and scaling quickly. WebThe following charts show the stock performance of securities subsequent to each open-market, non-planned trade made by Jonathan Webb. 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. Its flagship facility is a 60-acre indoor farm in Morehead, a town of 8,000 in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, and it solely uses rainwater for its irrigation. San Francisco Bay Area, Silicon Valley), Total number of current Jobs the person has, CB Rank (Hub): Algorithmic rank assigned to the top 100,000 most active Hubs, Number of news articles that reference the Person, How AppHarvest Is Investing in the First Generation of High-Tech Farmers, AppHarvest May Not Be a Tasty Investment Yet, Agtech company AppHarvest debuts produce in select grocery stores, AppHarvest hires Impossible Foods David Lee as president, AppHarvest hires chief communications officer, Watch NASAs James Webb Space Telescope do high-tech origami, Varsity Spirits Webb on Bolstering the Middle Class, Jimmy Webb, Purveyor of Punk Fashion, Is Dead at 62, James Webb Space Telescope Successfully Deploys Its Mirror for the First Time. Most countries in the Middle East import nearly all of their fruit and vegetables. 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.. But the futuristic pieces, we've combined a technology team with a great plant science group. According to Webb, going public has helped the company focus on the big picture. Kentucky has been experiencing record amounts of rainfall in recent years, so for Webb, the location was obvious. 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. That's, for us, again, there's a piece where we need to be very close to the product and that's we're optimizing for the plant. What weve proven through a global pandemic is that we can build one of the largest facilities in the world on time, on budget, at a record pace.. But I wonder, is there something to your mind? Again, the private markets get a very bad rap socially. Project Access offers ESL/ESL classes, after school programs, and computer literacy. I hope you enjoy our conversation. Karrie, on the other hand, has not disclosed her salary or income. My competition in Mexico, you have people getting paid $5 a day. We've had record amounts of rainfall. How excited are you to bring that Root AI company in their leadership into your family? Jonathan strives to work alongside the hard-working men and women of Eastern Kentucky and build an inclusive economy for the future. All Rights Reserved. With that difficult work that in mind, Webb has designed his company to grow as much produce as possible as sustainably as possible. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. That world will look pretty different from the one we live in now, but Lessing assured me that even as AI gets firmly integrated into agriculture, AppHarvests robots are, fundamentally collaborative. Theyre looking at a company and even though its pre-revenue it has all the necessary ingredients to succeed.. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Tesla. Is there any one thing or is it a collection of many things? His Twitter account is one of the most popular on the social network. We're building these facilities here where we can access markets and get to about three-quarters of the U.S. on a day drive. Webb: Regulators are pounding on them, consumers are pounding on them. Jonathan Webb grew up in Kentucky and has been committed to developing sustainable projects from Central Appalachia. Even with the help of AI, farm work at AppHarvest is still hard, manual labor. He is an ex-rugby player who represented England from 1987 to 1993, reaching the World Cup Final and winning two Five Nations grand slam titles. I graduated from the University of Kentucky. Jonathan Webb is an actor with a large following on Twitter. A full transcript follows the video. In February 2018, encouraged by investors, advisors including Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Thank you for your continued support. This is becoming really a hot-button topic for a lot of investors, rightly so. Webb was raised in a white-bread, wealthy family. Well, you need water you need food, and you need energy. Just wondering if you could share some of the highlights, some of the things you're proud of in regard to this earnings release, and your excitement here for the year to come. We can better understand what product we are going to have available? If you want to know how wealthy he is, read on! We love DC, but we don't want to just be selling to the high-end restaurants in DC. When is it going to be able to ship? By locating within Appalachia, the company is also less than a days drive to more than two-thirds of the U.S. population. Moser: It's impressive to think about the scope of what you are taking on because agriculture, farming, that's been something for so long, people just think, well, it's just what it's always been and we do it this way because that's the way we've always done it. Amid the verdant rolling hills of central Kentucky, in the heart of Appalachian coal country, youll 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. 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. "In less than Also referred to as blank check companies, the mechanism has existed for several years but has received increased attention of late. I think that's going to be something that just continues to get into the public's mind. I love your long-term focus. But to our investors the question and I got this on the roadshow, I'm in this to make money, great. Webbs England career totaled 67 points, breaking Hodgkinsons 60-point record. I asked on a call earlier today, well, have you had issues hiring people? Sustainable investor Equilibrium 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. On Twitter, the actor shares his personal experiences with his followers. Public asset : 44,698,475 USD. We just have to keep our head down and execute and do our job every day here at AppHarvest. What's the technology that you are looking toward to help you change this space? There are many sources of information on Jonathan Webbs networth. He actively engages with his followers through his various social media accounts, including Instagram and Twitter. The nonprofit organization he founded is still in operation today, and he continues to serve as Board Chair. 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. Never miss a story: Follow your favorite topics and authors to get a personalized email with the journalism that matters most to you. This will result in a $1.7 billion return of investment for the company. Become a Motley Fool member today to get instant access to our top analyst recommendations, in-depth research, investing resources, and more. We're building large facilities to grow fruit and vegetables running completely on recycled rainwater using LED lights, software, and sensors. 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. It means transparency. "And we don't think we could do that if we weren't in the public markets.". Moser: Yeah, I'd tell you, I think you're right. Thats why AI scares people, we know tech can be used just as coldly as anything else. Were investing heavily in our future, so were spending heavily today, he said. We dont see it as losing money for losing moneys sake; developing that tech is investing in our future.. This is a BETA experience. I have a 16 and then going on 15-year-old daughters. Part of it is that building big stuff fast in the US is very hard. Accomplish what they wanted to pursue? If were all doing that, we have a pretty phenomenal organization.. I encourage anyone to go out there Google Root AI and go check out the videos of what some of this stuff does. For example, we use integrated pest management, good pest to kill bad pest. Copyright 2023 Surperformance. Is there a benefit? 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. I'm sure it was an exciting time. If I were an investor, Id want my CEO on the ground with the team, not just in an office tower, he said. 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. Webb founded AppHarvest in 2017, and the company was certified as a B Corp two years later. 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. But the journey hasnt been without pitfalls. I mean I'm glad you keyed on the fact this is a global situation, it's a global issue. "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). 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. Almost every company in the coal industry has gone bankrupt over the last 10 years. One of AppHarvest's Crop Care Specialists operates a tomato-picking robot. Its easier than ever to find a trustworthy doctor. 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. Clearly, the younger generation is coming up, sustainability matters, better food matters. We want to be selling to 90% of America. We're farmers, we are growing fruits and vegetables, and we're utilizing sunlight, we're utilizing rainwater. Webb was named a World Rugby Council RFU representative in 2016. He has over 100 civil and criminal jury trials and has represented clients in counties across Georgia. Offers may be subject to change without notice. We're laser-focused on getting this right here. As founder and CEO of AppHarvest, Ive been listening to a podcast called The Future of Farming and Investing, where Jonathan Webb discusses how AppHarvest has built a three-million-square-foot indoor farm, twice as large as Amazons largest distribution center. I don't know that we're going to have enough time, but let's just start first and foremost this is one of our most recent recommendations in our service. Get 5 free searches. Consumers are pushing back. But its confident in its approach. I'm one of those people growing up I went to public schools here in Kentucky. AppHarvest is known for its approach to CEA, which Webb called the "third wave of sustainable infrastructure." Moser: I guess you're saying, and a lot of us would agree, you can't have your cake and eat it too. Were building important stuff with long-standing value, so the Great Resignation has actually helped us acquire talent.. Very excited about the Root AI transaction. The show also discusses the benefits of Martha Stewart being on their board and how they plan get their products onto shelves. Webb is a highly-respected knee surgeon in the United States. Because our services are focused on technology, 5G connectivity, and all of the different benefits we're going to get from that. A former England international, he reached the World Cup Final in 1991 and was a two-time grand slam champion in the Five Nations. The mission-driven approach Webb has prioritized is the companys main selling point both for investors and potential employees, whom he works to lure away from billion-dollar conglomerates. AppHarvest is an indoor farming company, so has massive greenhouses The first harvest at its Morehead facility is slated for early 2021. Webb, a former rugby player, has a wealth experience and is now helping players return to the sport they love. I fundamentally do not think its a tradeoff. I know you're in the DC area. 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. Now, our job is to make sure it's at around the same price. Webb is a consultant orthopaedic physician and a board member of World Rugby. Let's force that rigor early. We can have all the technological tools in the world, but at the end of the day we have to put people at the center of the equation.. Your email address will not be published. Cost basis and return based on previous market day close. All rights reserved. Webb founded AppHarvest in 2017, and the company was certified as a B Corp two years later. 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. We've moved most of our fruit and vegetable production down to Mexico and we're importing and shipping in 2,000 miles. We've just been selling product for a matter of months. It is a non-profit organization that provides education and social services to low-income residents living in low-income apartments. Follow her on Twitter at @BrookeDiPalma or email her at bdipalma@yahoofinance.com. Look at how many times in the last few years you've had leafy greens yanked off store shelves. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. The actor regularly posts photos and videos of himself, as well as engaging with his fans. 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. Why is that important? Which is important, because AppHarvest employs well over 300 people in its Morehead facility alone. We believe controlled environment agriculture is the third wave of sustainable infrastructure. "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. Before founding AppHarvest, Jonathan worked with the U.S. Department of Defense on the largest solar project in the Southeastern United States. 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. By the end of next year, we'll have five operating facilities. 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? 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. Location: Pikeville, KY. Add to My Lists. Putting a retention pond, we filter it with no chemicals and we're able to run our facility. Yes, today, we met our quarterly earnings projection, we hit our guidance, but we're making the hard investments and spending the hard time to set an organization up that's going to thrive 10 and 20 years from now. I think you really keyed in on something important there, a 30-year journey. 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. He practices at Mayo Clinic Hospital Eau Claire. That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. 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. Here, we've had three years out of the last ten years in Kentucky have been our wettest years on state record. We'll talk a little bit about that in just a second. 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. They ask themselves, Did we help five people today? Webb: To put this in perspective, this was our first facility under operations, our flagship facility. The system it uses reportedly reduces water usage by 90% compared to traditional open-field agriculture, while also eliminating runoff. "For us, at AppHarvest, this isn't just about a company. They have 10% of the world's freshwater. [laughs] This is something I'm very passionate about. Webb was also the first LPGA player to win $1 million in a single season, finishing first on the year-end money list. We want to be at Kroger. 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But really its water and food first. Webb grew up in Kentucky, and founded AppHarvest in 2017 after years in the solar development industry, based in New York. Later, in 1993, he relocated to the United Kingdom, where he completed his LLM. I mean, all of the stuff that you just talked about really does matter. He is also becoming more involved with green shipping and is a council member of the London Shipping Law Centre. Moser: That's going to do it for us this week, folks. In our first month or two, we're already at all those outlets. Theyre designed to be safe around people. Our team is built to scale and you look at where we're at today, we've launched our first facility. Webb started his professional career in 1989 as a Durban maritime lawyer firm. For us, we're looking at metrics, how can we be more sustainable? In light of the challenges AppHarvest has faced in its early stages, Webb expressed hope that younger generations like Gen Z and millennials would continue to innovate and "fight through" any obstacles in their way. That's how quickly the energy industry shifted. These food companies today are like the cigarette companies 40 years ago. But being true to our ESG values, we think it is a competitive advantage and going to make us more competitive in the years to come. Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with Jonathan about the growing opportunity in the AgTech space. All rights reserved. Typically, you would do 40 to 60 meetings to get a couple of investors. You start to do the math, and realize you might need two planet earths to have enough land and water to grow that food.. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your bedroom should be a serene place for you to feel rested and rejuvenated. 2023 Fortune Media IP Limited. Jason Moser has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The SPAC opportunity, let you, I think, become a publicly traded company maybe sooner than you really felt like you needed to. WebGet Chad Hill's email address (c*****@appharvest.com) and phone number at RocketReach. This helped the Army reach its goal of 20% renewable energy by 2025. Appharvest has ", "It's easy to be a CEO that's looking for the next three months," Webb stated. WebJonathan Mark Webb net worth is $800,000 Jonathan Mark Webb Wiki: Salary, Married, Wedding, Spouse, Family Jonathan Webb is an actor, known for Graffiti Bridge (1990), In He often sleeps in an RV outside the construction site of its second facility. With significant tailwinds from heightened investor focus on ESG initiatives and the secular shift to plant-based foods, we believe AppHarvest is well-positioned to execute on its strategy for rapid growth and value creation, he continued. If you look at the grocery and then you go, wait a second. 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 if we do the work to center the people who benefit from that technology in the middle of the conversation, then progress doesnt have to be a bad thing. 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 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 Fidelity Management & Research Company, Inclusive Capital, and Novus. Terms & Conditions. 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. You have illegal chemical pesticides where the EPA cannot track the chemicals being used on these farms in Mexico. The regulators are pushing that direction. The greenhouse, completed in 2020, yields up to 30 times the crops a traditional farm would, Webb said. It sounds like there's a lot of potential there. Webb supported a large-scale solar project in Virginia while he was employed by the U.S. Department of Defense. Jeff Ubben, Inclusive Capital Partners founder and AppHarvest investor, and Jonathan Webb, AppHarvest CEO, join 'Closing Bell' to discuss what makes AppHarvest Here are five relaxing scents you can use in your bedroom. Ten years ago, Tesla made electric vehicles popular in the mainstream, and right now, it's controlled environment agriculture. Of course, the future is what really matters. 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 I love that passion. He acknowledges that scaling up so quickly in the middle of a pandemic is, almost unheard of in the current world. But the production we've left in the US is being grown in areas that are running out of water. Jonathan Webb poses with celebrity investor Martha Stewart and some of his signature tomatoes. But then it's pulling technology in to drive nature from behind. After serving as an assistant public defender in Marylands Office of the Public Defender, Webb joined Ethridge Quinn for 2020. The Kentucky-based agriculture tech company, which was founded in 2017, began trading on the Nasdaq in late February 2021 after completing a SPAC merger with Novus Capital Corporation. 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. One of AppHarvest's mobile units ready to fight the food fight, outside of AppHarvest's offices in [+] Lexington, Kentucky, If we cant treat people with dignity and respect who put food on our table, where do we think humanity is going to end up? WebJonathan Webb, AppHarvest Inc: Profile and Biography - Bloomberg Markets Live Now Bloomberg TV+ Leaders with Lacqua:Mark Read WPP CEO Bloomberg Radio Meet the It's a nice evolution in the investing world that we care more and more about it. Webb: Well, I'll start by saying, anyone that is growing good, clean produce, without harsh chemical pesticides, I try to call them my colleagues, not competitors. Earlier this year we did get listed on the Nasdaq. Age : 37. Jonathan Webb is the Founder and CEO of AppHarvest, a company that combines conventional agricultural techniques with cutting-edge technology to address The greenhouse will cost $97 million and span 60 acres. 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.

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