iGrow Digest: Agriculture, Energy & Water Investment News

Flex is buying EPC Power for $4.4 billion, the week's clearest bet on grid hardware

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 09:00:00 -0500

The week's biggest deal wasn't software or AI — it was a $4.4 billion bet on the boxes that convert electrons.

Flex agreed to acquire EPC Power for $4.4 billion, absorbing the North American maker of grid-scale inverters and power-conversion systems used in utility solar and storage — the unglamorous hardware that has become the real bottleneck as AI data centers and electrification push demand higher. Alongside it, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners paid roughly $1.1 billion for Australia's Gawara Baya wind-plus-battery project, and Orrön Energy completed its merger with Cloudberry Clean Energy to form a ~2.1 TWh Nordic independent power producer.

Also this week: Fervo Energy signed a record 396 MW geothermal deal with Google; Missouri American Water closed its $34.5 million Neosho water and wastewater acquisition; Adecoagro completed its ~$148 million purchase of the Caarapó Mill from Raízen; Odyssey Energy Solutions raised $74 million and Gridsight a $26 million Series B led by Insight Partners; Corvus Robotics raised $20 million led by Catalyst Investors for warehouse inventory drones, while Japan's Sunshiki closed a pre-seed for seaweed-based cattle-methane feed; TXNM Energy priced a $400 million stock offering and Olam's ofi raised a $100 million private note; Ecobat sold its lithium-recycling business including its Casa Grande, Arizona operations; Studsvik picked GE Vernova Hitachi and Samsung C&T for 1.2 GW in Sweden; Chobani committed $1.2 billion to a Pennsylvania dairy campus; and ProLogium began mass production of a 381 Wh/kg solid-state battery.

The premium AgTech Intelligence Brief, Root Deal, goes deeper on CropX's biggest acquisition yet, Indigo Agriculture's ENAI spinoff, BFG Supply's Chapter 11 filing, and NADEC's $22.7 million greenhouse deal.

In this episode:
(00:00) Cold Open
(00:33) The Impact Scorecard
(01:30) Corporate and Financial Shifts
(05:25) Innovation and Public Strategy
(07:57) Market Signals and Operations
(09:39) Close

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ArcLight just put $1 billion behind a transmission company that didn't exist last week

Fri, 28 Aug 2026 09:00:00 -0500

One billion dollars of equity, one brand-new transmission company — and a 54-year-old distributor filing Chapter 11 with $342.5 million in debt, in the same week.

CropX Technologies closed its eighth acquisition since 2020 and its largest ever, buying lab-testing firm SCIO to pair soil-sensing and farm-management data with lab-grade crop analysis — what it calls agriculture's first self-improving agronomic intelligence platform. Alongside it, Indigo Agriculture spun its biologicals business into a standalone company, ENAI, built around endophyte plant science, while Indigo Carbon continues under the original brand.

Also this week: ArcLight Capital Partners committed $1 billion to launch Anchor Point Transmission; BFG Supply filed for Chapter 11 with $342.5 million in debt, a $55 million DIP loan and an October 22 sale target after cutting staff from 700 to 461; Eos Energy consolidated battery production at Thorn Hill, Pennsylvania, targeting 10–15% lower conversion costs from 2027 for roughly 250 affected employees; NADEC agreed to buy Pure Harvest's six-hectare Haradh greenhouse for $22.7 million; Sisu Energy and Environmental acquired Helical Energy; Sol Systems bought the 200 MW Lumberton project from DESRI; Crux closed $215 million of tax equity behind Invenergy's 240 MW Pleasant Prairie solar project; EDF power solutions reached financial close on Oman's 120 MW JBB wind farm; Breedr raised a $27 million Series B led by Partech, TerraBlaster a $12.5 million seed, VitalFluid a $19.9 million Series A; Emvolon signed a $450 million-plus deal with Freepoint Commodities; the DOE granted Princeton NuEnergy $50 million; USDA and HHS unveiled Harvest to Hallways with up to $95 million; NANO Nuclear and Tillman Digital Gateway targeted 2+ GW for AI data centers; Sungrow energized a 200 MW/400 MWh project in 17 days; Reservoir landed a $10 million R&D partnership with John Deere; and Dole and Nature's Pride joined the WAVE Aconcagua Partnership in a Chilean valley where river flows have fallen 50% in 15 years.

The premium Trends Analysis edition — Big Ag Is Buying Its Way Into Biology — maps roughly 120 crop-protection deals logged in 2026, funding rebounding to $507 million across 15 rounds, AgBiTech and Kimitec moving into strategic hands, and FMC and Bayer restructuring chemical portfolios to fund the shift.

In this episode:
(00:00) Cold Open
(00:38) The Impact Scorecard
(01:34) Corporate and Financial Shifts
(05:38) Innovation and Public Strategy
(08:36) Market Signals and Operations
(10:36) Close

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Apollo Atomics raised $31M to shrink reactors to a fortieth of conventional size

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 09:00:00 -0500

A factory-built steam generator that shrinks a nuclear reactor to a fortieth of its normal size just pulled in $31 million — and it wasn't even the biggest capital story of the week.

Water was. Veralto agreed to pay $465 million for Cleanwater1, a US disinfection and odor-control specialist with 25,000 installed units, at roughly 17x trailing earnings. Days later, H2O America cleared its final regulatory hurdle to close a $540 million purchase of Greater Houston utility Quadvest, adding nearly 140,000 connections and making it Texas's second-largest investor-owned water utility — with Texas set to make up more than a quarter of its total service base by 2029.

Also this week: Mérieux NutriSciences is acquiring Warburg Pincus-backed Certified Group, 31 North American labs and about $300 million in annual revenue, closing in Q4; Distributed Sun anchored a $1 billion capital base behind new storage-and-microgrid platform trutility, launching with gigawatt-hour-scale assets across 14 utility territories; Ever After Foods bought Belgium's Fishway plus a $2 million strategic investment; GrubMarket made its first non-US acquisition, UK produce distributor JR Holland; Cosan is voluntarily delisting its ADSs from the NYSE to consolidate on B3; A1R water began Nasdaq trading after a $96 million PIPE anchored by Inflection Point and Southern Glazer's; Apollo Atomics raised $31 million ($26 million seed led by FCVC plus $5 million debt); Thea Energy extended its Series B with Brevan Howard Macro Venture; Mafix raised $5.4 million pre-seed led by Azolla Ventures; Computomics closed a €6.3 million Series B; Vessev raised $19 million with FlyTahoe as first US customer; Swift Current Energy lined up a $750 million credit facility; Quinbrook closed A$469 million for Supernode with CATL; SalMar won approval for $531 million in Oslo green bond listings; ROTEC won the 86-million-gallon-per-day Changi NEWater Factory 3 reverse osmosis design; and a Weed Science Society of America study put the cost of an Illinois glyphosate ban at up to $609 million a year for corn and soybean growers.

The premium AgTech Digest edition, Herd Instinct, covers EW Group's completed buyout of French biologicals maker Olmix, a $15 million Series B for Australian livestock tracker Ranchbot, and the new USDA–DHS biosecurity pact aimed at the screwworm outbreak that has already cost Florida citrus 95% of its production.

In this episode:
(00:00) Cold Open
(00:20) The Impact Scorecard
(01:40) Corporate and Financial Shifts
(05:55) Innovation and Public Strategy
(07:45) Market Signals and Operations
(10:05) Close

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Xylem is paying $1.46 billion for two pump makers, its biggest water bet of the year

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 09:00:00 -0500

Eleven acquisitions crossed the wire in a single week — and the biggest one was a $1.46 billion bet on pumps.

Xylem agreed to buy Cornell Pump and Roper Pump from industrial conglomerate Indicor for $1.46 billion, in a deal expected to close in the fourth quarter. The two brands add more than $260 million in combined revenue at 30%-plus EBITDA margins to Xylem's Water Infrastructure segment — a straightforward read on aging utilities and one-directional pump demand.

Also this week: Nuclea Energy is acquiring Moltex Energy's advanced nuclear portfolio, including the Waste to Stable Salt process, the Stable Salt Reactor-Wasteburner, the FLEX design and 80 granted patents, out of UK administration; Mazavida launched as a containerized-desalination joint venture between Kinetic7 Technologies, Aquarius Capital, PIF Energy and PIF Capital across Abu Dhabi and Houston; Doral Renewables raised $400 million in common equity from parent Doral Group for its 17 GW pipeline; Verdantas bought Pax Environmental, adding nearly 75 staff; Recurrent Energy closed $695 million for the 330 MW Cobalt Solar project and brought the 150 MW Carwarp Energy Park online early under a Microsoft power deal; Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners closed $510 million of debt on a 420 MWdc Mexican solar-plus-storage plant; Ranchbot raised a $15 million Series B and set up a U.S. holding company in Texas; Arevon energized a 300 MW/1,200 MWh battery project backed by $920 million; Jacobs won a $750 million pipeline overhaul on Utah's Strawberry High Line; Netafim launched GrowSphere FLEX for smallholders, who farm 84% of the world's total; BrightFarms landed Kroger and Costco shelves in Dallas and Atlanta; and USDA and DHS signed a memorandum pairing animal-health expertise with border security against New World screwworm.

The premium edition this week is Gene Editing Grew Up. The Genetics Land Grab Is On. — 33 database entries across crop genomics, science and seeds since mid-May, from Tropic's acquisition of Rahan Meristem to Corteva spinning out its seed-and-genetics arm as Vylor.

In this episode:
(00:00) Cold Open
(00:34) The Impact Scorecard
(01:33) Corporate and Financial Shifts
(05:31) Innovation and Public Strategy
(08:14) Market Signals and Operations
(09:43) Close

Connect with Us!

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IGD001: Current Affairs

Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 -0500

Indoor farming's harshest lesson yet, dealmaking across three continents, and $263 million flowing into grid storage.

80 Acres Farms raised $390 million across six rounds and became one of the largest vertical farms in the United States. This week it began winding down, unable to line up fresh capital — a blunt reminder that indoor-growing economics remain brutal.

That's the lead story in the very first iGrow Digest: energy, water and agriculture in one quick listen. Also this week — Farmmi moves on Brazil's soybean and sugar trade with an all-stock bid for Four Seasons Holding Group; Aquatech extends into Middle East water treatment by acquiring Metito Chemical Solutions; Boralex clears its final approvals to go private at $37.25 a share; Frontier Power raises $263 million and picks up an 800 megawatt-hour battery project in Texas; and Ørsted switches on 500 megawatt-hours of storage in Needville, Texas.

Want the deeper numbers? This week's premium edition, Seed Capital, breaks down agriculture's inputs layer — seeds, genetics, biologicals and fertilizer — with a full year-over-year read on 6 M&A deals, 23 funding rounds, 33 partnerships and 17 product launches. Read the full edition.

In this episode:

(00:00) Cold Open

(00:25) The Scorecard

(01:15) The Big Deals

(02:21) Powering Down

(02:55) Follow the Money

(04:03) Around the Sectors

(06:28) Quick Hits

(07:19) Close

Connect with Us!

Be sure to subscribe to our other shows:

Vertical Farming Podcast: https://vertical-farming-podcast.captivate.fm/listen