KBW Ventures joins global investors to fund growth plans for Back to the Roots

KBW Ventures, set up by prominent sustainable food industry investor, Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud, has joined global investors, led by S2G Ventures and Acre Venture Partners, with participation from John Foraker, and Fund Good Jobs to finance the growth of Back to the Roots, a US-based organic gardening company. The capital will be used to scale up national distribution and marketing for the seed packet line, as well as support the continued growth of its small-space gardening kits.

Back to the Roots, also available on Amazon, aims to make gardening accessible to growers of all experience levels and in all types of living environments. The company first launched a pilot version of its seed packet program in 100 The Home Depot stores with plans to expand across The Home Depot stores throughout the U.S. as well as in Albertsons and H-E-B supermarkets. The 2020 seed program includes 92 varieties of fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers, all of which are organic and non-GMO.

Back to the Roots also continues to expand its line of gardening kits with four new products—a self-watering succulent kit, and three kids grow kits. Its gardening products range from easy-to-use indoor herb & veggie grow kits to mushroom kits to aquaponic systems.

Prince Khaled, who has been at the forefront of the tech and plant-based revolution with investments in Memphis Meats, Rebellyous Foods, and BlueNalu, through his innovation fund KBW Ventures, pointed out, “Their origin story is fascinating; they could have gone in any other direction but they have a real passion for this. Back To The Roots was closing a funding round at the time of my introduction, so it was fortuitous timing. The growth is impressive and their YOY is fantastic, and they have a number of verticals; this is a business I can easily get behind especially since I started off as a customer.”