A booming greens tech

BoomGrow co-founders Murali Krishnamurthy (left) and Jay Desan. — Photo: BoomGrow

THERE are tiers upon tiers of racks, all brimming with healthy vegetables. And they are not just growing by themselves.

They are powered by advanced technology and data-driven methods.

This is the vertical farm of BoomGrow, which is planting the seeds for a greener, cleaner future for farming.

Established in 2013, the tech-enabled farm company aims to transform food production and distribution with its indoor vertical farms which have controlled environment technology.

Using precision farming, which integrates sensor and analysis tools to optimise crop management, the farms are designed to produce fresh, nutritious greens sustainably while delivering consistent yield and quality year-round.

“The business was inspired by a deeply personal question: how can we eat better?,” co-founder Jay Desan tells StarBiz 7.

More than 20 years of advisory work in ESG and digital transformation, and a PhD in sustainability, had given Jay a front-row seat to glaring problems found in our food systems.

Chemicals were used too freely, supply chains were rife with exploitation, and industrial-scale agriculture wreaked havoc on the environment.

BoomGrow’s goal is to demonstrate a better alternative, she says.

“Our produce comes from a growing process that positively impacts the health of our consumers, and the health of the world around us. Machine-controlled inputs of light, water, and other growth conditions allow us to optimise the quality of our produce and maintain a greater consistency of supply,” she explains.

Live data feeds enable constant monitoring of growth cycles, while machine learning and analysis tools assist in tracking progress and creating enhanced growth conditions.

The stackable, modular and customisable systems, called “Machine Farms”, are able to produce a range of leafy vegetables, microgreens and herbs, with wide flexibility to scale up or down based on demand.

Compared to traditional farming, considerably less land is utilised in these space-efficient stacked configurations. Water waste is also significantly minimised as plant roots are placed in direct contact with nutrient-enhanced filtered water.

Currently, BoomGrow boasts a total of 16 farms across three countries in the region, with locations in the Klang Valley, Penang, Johor and Langkawi, as well as in Indonesia and the Philippines.

“The biggest hurdle was proving that something as technically complex and capital-intensive as precision farming could make financial sense, especially in a region like South-East Asia where cost sensitivity is high,” Jay shares.

“There were many moments where we were essentially flying while building the plane. We went through multiple design iterations of our farms before this scalable, modular model. Commercial viability came from relentless refinement.”

She highlights one result of this continual innovation – BoomGrow’s own central Farm OS, a common operating system for all its farms that integrates data from sensors, climate control systems, nutrient flows and yield records into a single interface.

Fuelling the company’s persistent drive towards research and development is a diverse team of plant scientists, engineers, software developers and operations specialists, all sharing a common purpose of producing better food in a scalable, measurable and sustainable way.

“We create space for experimentation, but also accountability. We’ve had software developers shadowing agronomists during crop cycles to understand growth patterns.

“Cross-training and a hunger to learn are part of our culture as we build the playbook for agritech in this region,” she says.

At the moment, the company is largely focused on supplying its greens to local restaurant and hotel businesses. The top challenge, Jay says, is in prioritising modularity and scalability while also ensuring the technology is best utilised.

For this reason, the team intends to dive deeper into data to enable better informed decision-making and more control over production outcomes.

At a time when critical infrastructure and technology costs have significantly fallen while consumers are growingly open to change, the current landscape is ripe with opportunities for businesses like BoomGrow.

“What was historically an under-digitised industry is accelerating to become more tech-focused, so we foresee deeper penetration of Internet of Things or IoT, robotics and drones,” Jay says.

Leveraging this momentum, the company this year marked its first expansion outside of South-East Asia with the launch of its Machine Farm in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

The move not only represents a proud step in its regional growth journey, but validation of its modular model and its potential for cross-border replication, especially involving language barriers.

Jay adds that the new Machine Farm in the Central Asian nation uses the same chamber specifications and centralised operating system as its South-East Asian counterparts, with local adaptation for water, power and sourcing.

“It’s a city with extreme climates, logistical complexities and rising demand for clean food. If we can grow successfully in Almaty, we can grow almost anywhere,” she says.

“This has also opened doors to conversations with urban developers and policymakers who are thinking about food as infrastructure.”

A data-driven approach to agriculture requires a significant shift in mindsets, which is why BoomGrow’s deeper mission revolves around reshaping public awareness around food, where it comes from, and the financial and environmental costs of current production practices.

On the operational side, the company’s roadmap ahead includes further automation, expansion into more emerging markets, and building a brand known for transparency, nutrition and freshness.

“Our long-term goal is to make clean, sustainable food accessible to every city in South-East Asia and beyond. We want to be the go-to model for decentralised, climate-resilient farming that complements, not replaces, traditional agriculture,” Jay adds.