Saudi Arabia’s KBW Ventures has marked its foray into the rapidly growing organic gardening segment in the US by participating in the latest financing round for Back to The Roots, a California-headquartered organic gardening firm.

Back to The Roots, founded in 2009, aims to make gardening accessible through its line of small-space gardening kits, live plants, raised beds and 100 percent US-grown seeds.

Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed, founder and CEO, KBW Ventures told Zawya that it is the first time that his firm had committed funding to the organic gardening segment.

“…I intend to try and positively impact, however I can, every part of the food chain. In parallel with our food tech investments, ‘Back to The Roots’ expansion plans were an ideal fit for us in terms of enabling every person to participate in what I consider a healthful awakening,” he said.

KBW Ventures has also made investments in other tech and plant-based start-ups such as Memphis Meats, Rebellyous Foods and BlueNalu.

Back to The Roots plans to use the newly-raised capital to scale up national distribution and marketing for its seed packet line and support the continued growth of its small-space gardening kits.

With e-commerce giant Amazon recently banning the sale of foreign seeds into the US, the company’s 100 percent US grown retail seed packet programme holds potential for growth, according to its press statement.

Other participants in the fundraising round, which was led by current investors S2G Ventures and Acre Venture Partners, were John Foraker and Fund Good Jobs.

(Writing by Anoop Menon; editing by Seban Scaria)

anoop.menon@refinitiv.com

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