UK-based Upcycled Plant Power makes a machine harvester for broccoli farmers to help them capture more value from their fields by automating what is today an overwhelmingly manual harvesting process.
Only 20% of the broccoli plant has retail value. UPP’s machine collects the whole plant. and then the company converts the leaves, stalks and crowns that aren’t fit for sale into fibers, sugars and proteins for use in new food products, pet food and cosmetics. The three-year-old company rents its harvester to farmers on multi-year contracts, and pairs it with data services to enable precision harvesting.
UPP is “turning waste into a powerful resource while solving a challenge for food manufacturers wanting to decarbonize their products,” said Jonathan Pollock of Elbow Beach, which made a £1.5 million ($2 million) investment to help the company get to revenue generation.
The new investment follows Elbow’s £500,000 in funding to UPP in 2023. The latest is part of a £3.5 million round for UPP that included £500,000 million in government grants.
Public-private funding
UPP got its start in partnership with agriculture and food researchers at the UK’s James Hutton Institute and the agri-innovation hub Agri-EPI Center. The broccoli harvesting technology was designed using Elbow Beach’s first round of capital and an £800,000 grant from the UK’s Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs and UK Research and Innovation.
Elbow Beach is a VC firm that was set up in 2021 to make very early investments in new climate technologies and often serves as startups’ first institutional check. The firm is now raising its second climate tech fund and has an £80 million target. It is backed by the British Business Bank.
