AgriTech entrepreneur, Waleed Arshad, has been actively involved in the startup scene for several years. He has worked on a variety of projects, starting with flower plantation and moving on to various vegetables and cash crops. In 2020, he discovered his passion for vertical farming and built his first hydroponic greenhouse, growing high-quality vegetables for export.
This year, Waleed was selected for the Hero Training Program by Draper University, which specializes in turning ideas into products and scaling existing businesses. With this training, he began working on a project to provide the community with healthier, fresher, greener, and more organic produce. He founded “VeGrow Farms,” with the goal of cutting the supply chain and decreasing the carbon footprint and global warming.
VeGrow Farms has a young and talented team, consisting of Waleed as the founder and Jasia Farooq as the Chief Marketing Officer. The team plans to use their funding for their MVP and increasing the pace of product development, ultimately building and expanding their supply chain.
The company’s major focus is on reducing the CO2 footprint that traditional farming imposes on the environment. They advocate for the technique of growing crops in a vertical direction, using as little as 5% of the water that conventional farming consumes. By integrating advanced technology in agriculture, crop yield can be increased, disease can be controlled, and the quality of crops can be improved.
Building vertical farming units in urban settings can provide fresh and healthy greens to locals, while decreasing the organic produce carbon footprint by shortening the supply chains. VeGrow Farms believes that this is a crucial step in combating global warming and that action must be taken now to avoid regret in 2050.
Waleed, the founder of VeGrow Farms, states “Global Warming is getting worse day by day. After the recent floods in Pakistan, I feel like it’s now or never for us.”
