Coffee with: Derya Baran, co-founder and chief engineer at RedSea: Baran (LinkedIn) is the chief engineer of agricultural technology startup RedSea and a professor at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Kaust). Her work is driven by the theory that local and fresh food can be a feasible reality for over 1 bn people living in desert areas if the right sustainable resources are used.

We sat down with Baran to discuss how RedSea emerged as an agritech player, how its technology works, and their outlook and priorities in the future in the GCC and beyond.

Edited excerpts from our conversation follow:

Enterprise: Tell us about RedSea and its affiliation with Kaust.

Derya Baran: RedSea was founded in 2018 with a mission to use technology to help feed the world sustainably by designing, developing, and delivering one of the world’s most advanced sustainable hot climate agtech platforms. The company is a university spin out from Kaust in Saudi Arabia, where I am a professor of Material Science.

We are currently focused on regional and global expansion and completed our first tech sale in the United States last March – providing our Iyris Heat-Blocking roof to a Florida-based nursery. We plan to commercialize additional technologies, scale operations, and deliver these innovations to farmers in hot climates globally.

E: How does the tech work?

DB: Agriculture is one of the most resource-intensive human activities on the planet with over 70% of global freshwater used to grow food. We take a systems-based approach to sustainable agriculture. Our proprietary technologies span from the crop roots all the way up to the greenhouse roof to enable sustainable farming in hot climates.The crops currently grown by Red Sea Farms — our produce brand exclusively available in Saudi Arabia — include snack peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and strawberries. However, our technologies are crop-agnostic.

For example, one of RedSea’s leading proprietary technologies is iyris — a heat-blocking greenhouse roof. This controlled environment agriculture solution blocks a portion of near infrared solar radiation and allows photosynthetic active radiation — the light needed for photosynthesis — to pass through, which reduces heat build-up in the greenhouse and significantly reduces cooling demands. This technology saves significant amounts of energy and water and extends the growing season in hot climates — recent tests in Saudi Arabia, showed over 40% reduction in energy usage and water consumption.

E: You also have an energy-efficient cooling system. How does that work?

DB: Our approach to cooling includes both active and passive cooling systems which can be used as a full stack for maximum energy savings or in isolation. On the active cooling side, our universal evaporative cooling system can run on low-quality, salty water with no desalination needed and no change in infrastructure. Additionally, our deep water culture decreases the load on the cooling system, especially during the heat of the summer through consistent oxygenation of the irrigation water. On the passive cooling side, the iyris greenhouse roof acts as a transparent heat shield, blocking excess heat from entering the greenhouse to save energy and control opex.

E: You say that the system is climate independent. Is your growing method adaptable to different climates?

DB: Farmers growing food in hot climates face many similar challenges. The most obvious challenge is the heat itself. Certain plants will not grow properly or may die completely from the effects of heat damage. Other challenges faced in hot climates often include water scarcity, water salinity, and drought.

If we can deliver technology for growing good quality fruits, greens, and vegetables in hot climates such as the Arabian Peninsula — where fresh water is scarce — then the processes can be replicated in similar harsh and hot environments around the world.

E: What kind of research are you doing to advance agriculture in arid and semi-arid climates?

DB: We have a research and development facility in Kaust where we trial new technologies and crop varieties. Once we are happy with the quality, we then deploy in our Riyadh commercial facility. Part of my job is to review new technologies from the ideation phase up to the prototyping phase to determine the technology’s impact and what might benefit the company commercially.

We have also launched a one-hectare commercial greenhouse facility in Abu Dhabi. The facility directly compares, side-by-side, our roots to roof technology with other technologies currently being used in the GCC.

E: How is RedSea funded?

DB: We have raised over USD 37 mn to date from our global cohort of investors who include Wa’ed, FII, Kaust, RPDC, Savola, Global Ventures, US-based entities AppHarvest, Bonaventure, and UbbenOlsen. We also received a HSBC Green Loan to help fund the building and operations of our new greenhouse facility in Abu Dhabi, which was commissioned in March.

E: How have the company’s priorities shifted over time?

DB: Our core mission has always been to design technologies that will help to feed the world sustainably. Our current priorities have shifted from not only using our technology to enable Red Sea Farms to grow produce, but also to selling our technology to growers in hot climates globally.

The global agtech market is forecasted to grow to USD 7.4 bn by 2030. The next three to five years will be focused on continuing our expansion. Currently, our technology is being used by growers in seven countries, including Spain, Egypt, and Turkey.