I fundamentally do not think its a tradeoff. 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. On Twitter, the actor shares his personal experiences with his followers. I think they certainly will be. Vance, and politicians of both parties, Jonathan left Washington and came home to Kentucky, where he now works tirelessly to make the eastern part of the state the AgTech capital of America. It hopes to expand into leafy greens, berries, cucumbers, and bell peppers in the future. We want to be at Kroger. "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. He has successfully completed over 200 operations using the Mako machine. 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. Since then, AppHarvest shares have plunged 70%. I go directly into the facility and talk to entry-level employees and people sweeping the floors. Webb: Well, the last great technological revolution in American farming is really when the tractor was introduced. The nonprofit organization he founded is still in operation today, and he continues to serve as Board Chair. Age : 37. Executive Vice President and Head of Enterprise Development, Support Activities for Agriculture and Forestry, Contract Support (U.S. Army Office of Energy Initiatives), Intelligent Assistance and Bots Ecosystem. I could be in a penthouse in New York City, managing AppHarvest from the 32nd floor of some high-rise. But really its water and food first. Maintaining that inclusive work culture, especially since he works in agriculture, is incredibly important to Webb, who aims to do everything from a place of empathy and considers his employees to be his first customers. They're not going to be solved in a month or a year or a quarter and we just want to build an organization that's going to be able to go toe-to-toe with the larger incumbents out there, and the best way to do that is to have that rigor of being a publicly traded company. We can also do it by returning investors to our shareholders. Part of it is we're building companies not just for today and not just for the quarterly earnings call today, we're building this company for the next generation. We need to all collectively have a much more longer-term viewpoint on how we're building companies that are going to be good for communities, good for employees, and return a good return to our investors and shareholders. We're going to be based in Central Appalachia. In the 1987 Rugby World Cup, Webb made his debut for England. How do you feel about coming public a lot earlier than you probably would've normally? Jonathan Webb is an actor with a large following on Twitter. He has published numerous papers on the topic of knee ligament injuries, arthroscopic surgery, and other techniques. Before founding AppHarvest, Jonathan worked with the U.S. Department of Defense on the largest solar project in the Southeastern United States. What's that Harvest's secret sauce? I cant say this was the exact plan but what accelerated all of this was Covid-19, AppHarvest CEO Jonathan Webb told AFN. 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. Webb was also the first LPGA player to win $1 million in a single season, finishing first on the year-end money list. I asked on a call earlier today, well, have you had issues hiring people? We always talk about investing for the future because that's really what investing is all about. 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. Webb was named a World Rugby Council RFU representative in 2016. This year alone, more than 50 SPACs have been formed in the US, collectively raising around $36.2 billion as of last month. I mean, I think that kind of speaks for itself. Later, in 1993, he relocated to the United Kingdom, where he completed his LLM. 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. I encourage anyone to go out there Google Root AI and go check out the videos of what some of this stuff does. How excited are you to bring that Root AI company in their leadership into your family? Clearly, the younger generation is coming up, sustainability matters, better food matters. WebGet Chad Hill's email address (c*****@appharvest.com) and phone number at RocketReach. Get 5 free searches. Invest better with The Motley Fool. 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. 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. Growing up in Appalachia, Jonathan Webb watched the slow decline of the coal industry firsthand. "And we don't think we could do that if we weren't in the public markets.". Cost basis and return based on previous market day close. We're selling to Kroger, we're selling in fast food chains like Wendy's. On today's show, AppHarvest Founder & CEO Jonathan Webb talks about AgTech (agriculture tech), the third wave of sustainable infrastructure. We have one farm right now thats 2.8 million square feet. 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? "Tech for good the consumer wants it. 10 stocks we like better thanWalmartWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have an investing tip, it can pay to listen. I feel like with AppHarvest, at least, my takeaway, I found a lot of things that make you all special. I write about the future of food, business, and culture. Europe, Menlo Park, China), Where the person is located (e.g. A universal harvester robot at AppHarvest's Morehead, Kentucky greenhouse, AppHarvests crops are monitored for quality control 24/7 and harvested robotically, a labor-saving advancement that lets the staff treat farming almost like a manufacturing process. Brooke DiPalma is a producer and reporter for Yahoo Finance. We've moved most of our fruit and vegetable production down to Mexico and we're importing and shipping in 2,000 miles. But if you look at the world, China and India account for 40% of the world's population. People at large tech companies question what theyre actually building. He has a particular interest in knee surgery and sports medicine. I want to know what the problems are from them, not just our executive team. Theyre looking at a company and even though its pre-revenue it has all the necessary ingredients to succeed.. Project Access, Inc. was founded by Mr. Webb in 1999. Webb is from Kentucky, where 16% of residents are Thank you for accessing our content on the Topio Networks Market Intelligence Center. His Twitter account is one of the most popular on the social network. Moser: Yeah. 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. They have 10% of the world's freshwater. He acknowledges that scaling up so quickly in the middle of a pandemic is, almost unheard of in the current world. I want to talk with you about in regard to AppHarvest. The private markets don't need to be a part of the problem, but we can't just be quarterly earnings focused. Putting a retention pond, we filter it with no chemicals and we're able to run our facility. The SPAC opportunity, let you, I think, become a publicly traded company maybe sooner than you really felt like you needed to. 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 As investors were looking for the biggest market opportunities we can find, market opportunities that are growing. You have labor concerns. 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. Your email address will not be published. When he says sustainable, he doesnt just mean that in an environmental sense. But if you look at the current food system today, it's high fructose corn syrup, it's sugary food that has low nutrient density. Most people every day are just concerned about can they put food on the table? Its service leadership; our team does not work for me, I work for our team., To that effect, hes imparted a lesson to each of his team members: Every day, help five people. The other thing is scale. On this week's episode of Industry Focus: Wildcard, host Jason Moser chats with AppHarvest (APPH) founder and CEO Jonathan Webb about the growing opportunity in the agtech space, what makes AppHarvest unique, his vision of the future of farming, and much more. could be sentient says Microsofts chatbot feels like watching the Shark Tank investor Kevin OLeary says a new generation of employee has never worked in an officeand its totally I cant afford to sell because I dont want to lose that rate: 3% mortgage rates will loom large over the U.S. CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice, Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. I mean, that is right in line. 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. You came public a lot sooner or probably that you would have had the opportunity to even 10 years ago. Webb founded AppHarvest in 2017, and the company was certified as a B Corp two years later. Again, if we look at agriculture, there's a lot of trouble in our current agriculture system and we can use ESG metrics to clean up our food supply and create better food systems. There are many sources of information on Jonathan Webbs networth. In 1985, he joined Bristol Rugby and won the John Player Cup. 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 You start to do the math, and realize you might need two planet earths to have enough land and water to grow that food.. AppHarvest is an indoor farming company, so has massive greenhouses Despite the off quarter, Webb has much to celebrate. Let's prove to the world what we're doing through results and even that, our first quarterly earnings call today, there's a level of rigor that you're acquired through the public markets. I think it's clear that investors should really be excited for the future of AgTech. sold to the top 25 U.S. grocers. It's about getting the industry to turn the corner at scale globally," Webb said. Again to some of your viewers that aren't aware of Root AI just look them up and take a look at some of those videos. That's our headquarters. 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. To make the world smarter, happier, and richer. In our first month or two, we're already at all those outlets. Follow her on Twitter at @BrookeDiPalma or email her at bdipalma@yahoofinance.com. We pay every employee at AppHarvest a living wage. We're ramping up and scaling quickly. Terms & Conditions. I think you really keyed in on something important there, a 30-year journey. Get stock recommendations, portfolio guidance, and more from The Motley Fool's premium services. ", "It's easy to be a CEO that's looking for the next three months," Webb stated. Announces Separation of Julie Nelson as Chief Operating Officer Nov 16 Price target decreased to US$5.33 Nov 16 See more updates Shareholder Returns See full shareholder returns Return vs Industry: APPH underperformed the US Food industry which returned We can get to 70% of the U.S. in a one-day drive. 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. Webb made a second appearance for England, and reached the final. "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). Again, for us, it's about keeping our head down, growing good fruit and vegetables. 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. He pointed out that, At NASA in the 60s, if you would go visit a facility and you walked up to a janitor and asked, What do you do here? they would say, Im working to put a man on the moon. Thats been the same mentality here Its the collective thats making this thing possible.. It doesn't need to be one or the other, it needs to be both, and we're happy to be a bit of a public benefit corporation and B Corp certified. A SPAC is formed with the sole purpose of raising capital through an IPO in order to acquire an existing privately-held company and take it public. We're in our first decade and we're going to try to look at judging the company on decade one, decade two, and decade three. By locating within Appalachia, the company is also less than a days drive to more than two-thirds of the U.S. population. Jonathan Webb is the Founder and CEO of AppHarvest, a company that combines conventional agricultural techniques with cutting-edge technology to address key issues including improving access for all to nutritious food, farming more sustainably, building a homegrown foods supply, and more. Why? Is there a benefit? 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. A specialist in knee surgery, Webb has performed countless surgeries in elite rugby union teams. Jonathan Webb currently follows over 1 million people. ESG should be at the core of profitability and it should be at the core of building a resilient company. AppHarvest reaffirms guidance on full-year 2021 net revenue of $21 million and Adjusted EBITDA of ($41) million provided during its Analyst Day presentation on December 15, 2020. AppHarvest knows its far from being the only player in the CEA game. Founder & CEO at AppHarvest. We had 22 meetings and had almost 20 yeses. Very few passed on this deal and we eventually had to cancel meetings.. Jonathan strives to work alongside the hard-working men and women of Eastern Kentucky and build an inclusive economy for the future. Jason Moser has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. That greenhouse is just the proof of conceptAppHarvest has broken ground on two more that will be just as impressive. Moser: Yeah. Moser: That's going to do it for us this week, folks. 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. I'm looking forward to being able to find more and more of these AppHarvest products in our grocery stores as we move forward. WebJonathan Webb. I watch them, I watch their friends, the things that they care about. We're laser-focused on getting this right here. He represented his country in 33 Test matches and played for Bristol and Bath. There won't be one automotive company transporting the world. www.vbprofiles.com is now www.topionetworks.com. Get the latest news and research from AFN & AgFunder in your inbox. That might sound straight from science fiction, but AppHarvests CTO Josh Lessing, who designed many of these universal harvesting systems says we only think that because farming has been so slow to innovate. He often sleeps in an RV outside the construction site of its second facility. We use bees to pollinate our plans. I did want to know here because I saw this in the earnings release and I just thought it was one of those quotes that stood out to me from Mastronardi, your distributor. Non-planned trade are trades that He holds a legal degree from the University of Natal as well as the University of Cape Town. Again, if you look at the U.S. right now, this is a USDA statistic, nearly 40% of fresh fruit and vegetables end up in a landfill. Webb was raised in a white-bread, wealthy family. Founder of AppHarvest, Inc., AppHarvest Morehead Farm LLC and AppHarvest Operations, Inc., Jonathan Webb is an entrepreneur who is Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of AppHarvest, Inc. and Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of AppHarvest Operations, Inc. (a subsidiary of AppHarvest, Inc.). Here are five relaxing scents you can use in your bedroom. When youre building tech for techs sake, you start to question what youre doing. All rights reserved. I would not want to be one of those large operators and food today when you see the consumer trends changing as quickly as they are, and we feel very optimistic again about where our growth trajectory is. To catch full episodes of all The Motley Fool's free podcasts, check out our podcast center. His final international was against Ireland in March 1993. A full transcript follows the video. ET More on the future of agriculture and vertical farming innovator You mentioned your children. WebFounder & CEO, AppHarvest Kentucky native and University of Kentucky graduate Jonathan Webb is turning his dream of a high-tech farming hub in Appalachia into reality with AppHarvest. If we're going to be working with the largest players in the world, then we need to be in the big leagues, and the only way to do that is to be a publicly traded company. Jonathan Webb's Appharvest shares are currently valued at $20.96M. Then Jeff Obin, who is on our board and has been an early investor. AppHarvest, which went public in February in an IPO that brought it $475 million in gross proceeds, is an ambitious venture. Webb: Well, thank you and thank you for having me, and we've got a lot of work to do here, but I can assure you we're head down building and look forward to continuing the conversation another time. St John Greek Orthodox Church Easter Schedule, 7 Residential Solar Maintenance Errors and How to Avoid Them, 4 Errors with Kitchen Renovations and How to Avoid Them, An Informative Guide to Livestock Transportation, A Tool That You Need If You are Into Live Stream. 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. My competition in Mexico, you have people getting paid $5 a day. $157M Today's Change (-7.84%) -$0.08 Current Price $0.94 Price as of March 1, 2023, 1:16 p.m. David and Tom just revealed what they believe are theten best stocks for investors to buy right now and Walmart wasn't one of them! Jonathan, thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to see just more about AppHarvest to talk about all the stuff that you're trying to accomplish there. Webb doesnt mince words on the specifics; the most valued companies in 100 years, he said, will be the ones that allow humanity to survive. He names a few: electronic vehicle manufacturers, renewable energy companies. Public asset : 44,698,475 USD. Very excited about the Root AI transaction. Why is that important? Is there any one thing or is it a collection of many things? It's therefore worth looking at AppHarvest's earnings history below. It sounds like there's a lot of potential there. He played against Australia on 23 May. The actor regularly posts photos and videos of himself, as well as engaging with his fans. No. You said that we're a technology company working to disrupt agriculture. Other AppHarvest investors include TV cook Martha Stewart, VC veteran Peter Thiel, ValueAct Capitals Spring Fund, Revolutions Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Equilibrium Capital, and Narya the new VC firm co-founded by JD Vance, author of best-selling Appalachian memoir Hillbilly Elegy. If you look at the grocery and then you go, wait a second. Yahoo Finance's Julie Hyman at the 2022 SXSW Conference, 3 big things in investing you might have missed this week, UPDATE 1-North Korea says US causing international arms control collapse, EU releases funds, prepares aid flight for eastern Congo, Rheinmetall in talks on building tank factory in Ukraine - report, Ukraine Latest: Metsola Urges More Sanctions Pressure on Russia. Of course, the future is what really matters. We've had record amounts of rainfall. Webb started his professional career in 1989 as a Durban maritime lawyer firm. Once operational, it will ship 45 million pounds of fresh produce annually to grocery stores in the Midwest and Southeast. 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.