Jungle in a €42m debt and equity financing round.

Jungle, an Épaux-Bézu, France-based vertical farming company, announced securing financing totalling €42 million ($50M).

The money is €35 million in debt provided by Atlante Gestion and €7 million ($8.4M) in equity raised from the France-based impact investment firm Founders Future, Demeter Partners and existing shareholders including Alain Denin, CEO of Nexity, Serge Papin, former CEO of Système U and Christian de Labriffe, of Tikehau Capital.

Proceeds will be used to develop three vertical farms in France and produce aromatic herbs, salads, microgreens as well as flowers for perfumery.

Jungle, founded in 2016 by CEO Gilles Dreyfus and Nicolas Séguy, put together a plant production technology and a full software solution supported by an operational services package, securing its clients a consistent supply of clean, nutrient rich and tasty plants. The company began experimentally in Portugal before launching in France in an industrial hangar located in Château-Thierry (Aisne) and leased to Cofigeo (William Saurin).

Jungle says now that it is assembling a 5,500m2 farm 80km from Paris, where crops will grow on stacked platforms. The site, expected to be fully operational by the end of 2021, is already partly in use and the company has secured contracts with French supermarkets Monoprix and Intermarche.