Vertical Future

Vertical Future designed and built controlled-environment farming systems, selling proprietary growing hardware and farm-management software to operators and research partners, and ran its own trial farms. Founded in London in 2016 by Jamie Burrows, it closed a £21M Series A in January 2022 that was then the largest European controlled-environment agriculture round. In 2023 the company sought a further £60M but, according to the administrators' filings, raised only £9.9M, later taking a £3.2M loan from Saudi investors on which it looked likely to default. Turnover fell from £6.7M to £692,000 and losses passed £10M in 2024. A sale process in July 2025 found no buyer and KBL Advisory were appointed administrators on 5 August 2025, with the loss of several dozen jobs. The administrators attributed the collapse to reduced funding, which they linked to a loss of confidence in the sector, and to higher electricity costs. The company moved from administration into creditors' voluntary liquidation in January 2026.

Richard Cole and Steve Kenny of KBL Advisory were appointed administrators on 5 August 2025; the company owed creditors £7.9M. Its assets and intellectual property were sold for £670,000 to companies ultimately owned by Tahir Mohsan. The company moved into creditors' voluntary liquidation in January 2026 (AM22 filed 15 January 2026, liquidator appointed 23 January 2026).

A capital-intensive hardware business planned around a £60M raise that landed at £9.9M had no fallback once sector sentiment turned after the AeroFarms, Infarm and Jones Food Company failures. Turnover collapsing by roughly 90 per cent in a year while losses exceeded £10M left no runway to renegotiate the Saudi loan, and a July 2025 sale process found no solvent buyer.