Sustainable student farming start-up raises £2.35 million in seed funding

LettUs Grow aims to tackle the increasing climate crisis and threats to global food security through sustainable and efficiency-boosting technology that drastically reduces water and fertiliser usage in agriculture.

The vertical and indoor farming system developed by the start-up grows plants suspended in the air using a mist to deliver nutrients, providing consistent, climate-resilient year-round harvests without using fertile land or pesticides, and using 95 percent less water.

Charlie Guy, who graduated with an MEng in Engineering Design in 2016, launched LettUs Grow with fellow students Jack Farmer and Ben Crowther while they were at Bristol in 2015. Jack began his entrepreneurial journey with the University’s Basecamp Student enterprise and start-up team.

Roots were firmly planted at the University when the students were awarded £4,000, plus additional consultancy support, at the University’s New Enterprise Competition, enabling them to take their futuristic farming concept to market. The relationship has continued to flourish with support from business incubator SETsquared Bristol and the employment of student interns and graduates through University programme.

Charlie Guy, Managing Director of LettUs Grow, said: “This investment gives us a platform to really accelerate in 2020 and scale-up the delivery of our game-changing technology to farmers across the country.

“We’re seeing rising demand from around the world for new technologies to help farmers grow crops in ways that mitigate against the effects of climate change and ever-increasing extreme weather events.”

In August 2019 Charlie Guy was crowned national ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ and awarded £30,000 at the Shell Enterprise Development Awards, which recognise UK entrepreneurs who help accelerate and facilitate a sustainable and low-carbon future.