LettUs Grow spins out of Ostara to build for sustainable growth
LettUs Grow, the Bristol-based sustainable agriculture technology business, is to spin out its software platform Ostara into a stand alone business, to support the company's focus on scaling its aeroponic technology globally.
Ostara is a ground-breaking software platform, initially developed by LettUs Grow to boost yields and reduce costs for indoor growers. The successful spin-out has been enabled by the Ostara leadership team securing investment from Bethnal Green Ventures (BGV), a leading VC for tech-driven start-ups with a focus on creating positive impact.
Ostara was created to reliably control and monitor all aspects of a crop's life in controlled environment agriculture (CEA) farms, including lighting, irrigation, fertigation, and environmental controls. It has been in use across more than 30 CEA projects across the country since 2015.
Recognising the challenges faced by the established, lower-tech polytunnel sector in managing environmental conditions effectively, the spin-out of Ostara now seeks to deploy the high-tech platform into covered horticulture. This addresses a critical need for improved climate management in polytunnels to protect crops from extreme conditions; on-farm waste accounts for £1.8 billion in lost revenue to farmers and the equivalent of 6.9 billion meals in the UK alone (WWF, 2022).
Dan Peel, CEO and co-founder of Ostara, said: "The spin out of Ostara marks an important milestone in our journey to transform the agricultural industry through technology. With the support of LettUs Grow and Bethnal Green Ventures, we are well-positioned to accelerate our growth and deliver impactful solutions to growers worldwide."
Ostara's software platform offers a comprehensive solution for growers, automating manual tasks and providing actionable insights to optimise growing operations. The platform can be seamlessly integrated into existing systems or incorporated into new installations, offering a unified approach to environmental controls, hardware management, and data analysis.
"This is an exciting moment for everyone involved. The fantastic team that we have built here in Bristol is now embarking on a new chapter as two distinct companies," said Charlie Guy, CEO and co-founder of LettUs Grow. "This move allows us to focus on LettUs Grow’s core expertise in aeroponics while empowering Ostara to thrive as an independent entity and maximise the impact of both unique technologies within our food system.
“As our hectare-scale Aeroponic Rolling Bench™️ and the Ostara software platform have both proven themselves in market, we felt it was the right time for the two businesses to operate independently. This ensures that the LettUs Grow team can concentrate on our exclusive global partnership programme to scale the benefits of aeroponics worldwide.”
LettUs Grow’s partnership programme enables supply-chain and delivery partners within the greenhouse and CEA industry to license LettUs Grow’s state-of-the-art Aeroponic Rolling Bench™️ technology. Through this programme, LettUs Grow empowers partners to effortlessly incorporate the advantages of advanced aeroponics into their existing product portfolio, streamlining customer deployments and maximising benefits for their clients.
