Item 1. Business
Item
1. Business.
Unless
otherwise stated or the context otherwise requires, references in this report to “Agrify”, the “Company,” “we,”
“us,” “our,” or similar references mean Agrify Corporation and its subsidiaries on a consolidated basis.
Business
Overview
We
are a leading provider of innovative cultivation and extraction solutions for the cannabis industry, bringing data, science, and technology
to the forefront of the market. Our proprietary micro-environment-controlled Agrify Vertical Farming Units (“VFUs”) enable
cultivators to produce high quality products with what we believe to be unmatched consistency, yield, and return investment at scale.
Our comprehensive extraction product line, which includes hydrocarbon, alcohol, solventless, post-processing, and lab equipment, empowers
producers to maximize the quantity and quality of extract required for premium concentrates.
Since
our inception, we have gone from primarily developing, selling, and supporting our VFUs along with our fully integrated Agrify Insights™
cultivation software (“Agrify Insights™”) to being able to offer customers a far more complete set of solutions, products,
and services across both cultivation and extraction. This has been a function of both our natural evolution and through a set of strategic
mergers and acquisitions. Since 2020, we have integrated six new brands into Agrify’s broader organization. Our first acquisition,
TriGrow Systems, Inc., was completed in January 2020. TriGrow Systems, Inc. was formerly the exclusive distributor of Agrify’s
VFUs. We added Harbor Mountain Holdings, LLC to our portfolio on July 21, 2020, to help scale up our manufacturing strategy with engineering,
prototyping, manufacturing, testing, warehousing, and installation services. Since October 2021, we have been strategically focused on
establishing ourselves as a global leader in the cannabis and hemp extraction equipment industry, complementing our cutting-edge cannabis
and hemp cultivation solutions. Over five months, we acquired four of the top brand names in the industry. On October 1, 2021, we acquired
Precision Extraction Solutions, a market leader in developing and producing high-quality hydrocarbon and alcohol extraction solutions,
and Cascade Sciences, LLC, a market leader in developing and producing high-quality vacuum purge ovens and decarboxylation ovens. On
December 31, 2021, we acquired PurePressure, LLC, a market leader in developing and producing high-quality solventless extraction solutions
and advanced ice-water hash processing equipment in the cannabis and hemp industry. On February 1, 2022, we completed our acquisition
of LS Holdings Corp., a market leader in developing and producing high-quality distillation and solvent separation solutions for the
cannabis and hemp industry.
We
now offer our customers an extensive ecosystem of solutions, products, training, and service capabilities in what has historically been
a highly fragmented market. Our offerings, which are described in more detail below, are compelling on their own. However, we believe
what sets us apart is our ability to bring to the market the most comprehensive set of cultivation and extraction solutions from a single
provider. As a result, we believe we are well-positioned to capture market share and create a dominant market position in the indoor
cannabis sector. We currently have two primary areas of business focus:
● Cultivation
Solutions; and
● Extraction
Solutions.
Cultivation
Solutions
While
we do not cultivate, come in contact with, distribute, or dispense cannabis or any cannabis derivatives that are currently prohibited
under U.S. federal law, our equipment and business solutions can be used within indoor grow facilities by fully licensed cannabis cultivators.
We sell our proprietary cultivation solutions to independent licensed cultivators. The two primary products we sell are the VFUs and
Agrify Insights™. We believe we are one of a limited number of companies offering a fully integrated cultivation solution optimized
for precision growing with robust automation capabilities in the industry.
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Agrify
Vertical Farming Unit
Our
proprietary VFU technology offers a modular, compartmentalized micro-climate growing system for indoor vertical farming. Our VFU system
is designed for craft farmers, single-state operators, and multi-state operators who are looking to consistently produce higher-quality
crops at scale. The VFUs are designed to line up horizontally in rows, and can be stacked vertically up to three units tall, taking advantage
of unused indoor vertical space with the below benefits:
● Superior
Floor Space Utilization . Each VFU provides two tiers of growing canopy. Our units
introduce an open-room facility design approach to maximize available cultivation floor space
while offering superior risk mitigation via individual compartmentalized cultivation chambers
which aim to contain potential biological threats to cultivation facilities.
● Precise
Environmental Controls . Each VFU has an Environmental Control Unit that is integrated
with our proprietary cultivation software, Agrify Insights™. This integration allows
for precise control and automation over light photoperiod and intensity, temperature, humidity,
vapor pressure deficit (“VPD”), carbon dioxide, fertigation, and irrigation throughout
the lifecycle of the plants.
● Modular
Scalability . The VFU is designed to stack up to three units tall, sextupling production
volume over the same traditional footprint. Each unit is designed to easily integrate with
a mezzanine catwalk system providing unparalleled access to all levels of cultivation.
● Worker
Safety & Efficiency . The VFU’s design was thoughtful and intentional; from
the ergonomic dimensions that facilitate safe, easy access to plants for scouting and plant
husbandry, to the integrated catwalks that allow cultivators to work from a safe sitting
or standing position without the need for scissor lifts, ladders or removable platforms.
● Biosecurity
and Risk Mitigation . The VFU has a motorized curtain on both sides of the unit that
encloses the grow area to prevent light pollution and the spread of disease that would typically
lead to facility-wide crop failure. Contamination can be controlled and limited to the affected
units, which are designed with sanitation in mind. From the aluminum frame to the selection
of antimicrobial plastics and down to the IP65 electronics and polycarbonate-lensed LED lights,
the entire VFU can be easily sanitized, especially with the VFU’s High Heat mode, which
helps sanitize all internal VFU surfaces effortlessly.
Agrify
Insights™
The
VFUs are designed to work in conjunction with our Agrify Insights™ software. Each VFU sold includes a license for Agrify Insights™
and a monthly Software-as-a-Service (“SaaS”) subscription fee is charged per VFU. The VFU cannot operate successfully without
Agrify Insights™, and we typically charge between $1,500 to $2,400 per VFU sold annually. Agrify Insights™ license agreements
are generally for a multi-year term, with an annual auto-renewal.
Agrify
Insights™ is a SaaS-based solution that interfaces with our proprietary hardware to provide customers with real-time control and
monitoring of facilities, growing conditions and insights into both production and profit optimization. The combination of precise environmental
control and automation with data collection and actionable insights empowers our customers to be more efficient, more productive, and
more intelligent about how they run their businesses. We believe that the robust data analytics capabilities from our Agrify Insights™
platform, coupled with our VFU system, is enabling our customers to transform their businesses and quality of the product they are cultivating.
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Agrify
Insights™ is focused on optimizing four key components:
● Optimization
at the plant level;
● Optimization
at the VFU unit level;
● Optimization
at the facility level; and
● Optimization
at the business level.
When
these key components are combined, they encompass the cultivation operations of an Agrify customer. By reducing human error and providing
insights through data collection and analysis, Agrify Insights™ minimizes risk and increases operational efficiencies. Ultimately,
our customers seek to produce end products with the highest level of consistency no matter where they are located.
Plant-Level
Optimization
Central
to our solution is granular control of the cultivation environment. A crop’s end-product is determined by the plant’s genetics
and the environment in which the plants are grown. Control over the growing environment is accomplished through the integration of Agrify
Insights™. Agrify Insights collects data from multiple sensors on a per plant basis between 4 and 60 times an hour. This can result
in between 100,000 and 151 million data points annually, depending on the number of plants and fluctuations in the VFU microclimate.
By recording data points and reproducing specific environments based on the data, cultivators can effectively minimize the variation
in their crops and dial-in the maximum quality. Individual plant varietals can be optimized by tailoring the grow plan (recipe for cultivation)
to enhance genetic traits; increasing the temperature can speed chemical processes and growth rates and adjusting the length of different
phases of a plant’s lifecycle can maximize the crop’s yield. Additionally, when new varieties of plants are cultivated, having
multiple controlled, compartmentalized, growth chambers allow for iterative experiments which offer real insight into how new varieties
are best cultivated which is beneficial for research and development purposes.
Our
“Grow Plans” are the templates or recipes that define the parameters for each lifecycle. Grow Plans define the environmental
settings (light - photoperiod and intensity, temperature, humidity, VPD, CO2, irrigation, fertigation) for each crop variety and cultivator
as well as the schedule for completing, as applicable, “plant touching” tasks such as bottoming, pruning, and harvesting.
Agrify Insights™ ships to the customer with many pre-developed Grow Plans and customers can create their own Grow Plans, electing
to share them with other customers or not.
Individual
VFU Level Optimization
Our
VFU hardware provides cultivation environmental control within the grow chamber. This hardware and its component valves, motors and sensors
are directed and controlled by Agrify Insights™.
● Monitor
and Control Agrify Hardware . Agrify Insights™ can either automatically or manually
control our hardware. For example, the water-chilled fan coil can keep the temperature in
a range accurate to 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit.
● Cultivation
Environmental Control . Using Agrify Insights™, users can view environmental
charts that plot temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide over time. It also shows when
plant irrigation occurs and whether the unit is in cooling, circulating, or dehumidifying
mode. We sample these values every minute and report them back to the cloud every 15 minutes
or more often if significant changes occur. Each growing chamber reports millions of data
points annually, enabling our clients to perform an in-depth analysis of their grow performance.
The manual control screen visualizes the current state of the grow chamber and allows our
technicians to take direct control for troubleshooting, if necessary. The device log shows
us what decisions were made by Agrify Insights™ and why.
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Facility
Level Optimization
Our
modular VFUs are deployed in scale at a customer’s facility with the smallest commercial operation deployment being 60 VFUs to
date. Agrify Insights™ is designed to operate these individual VFUs as a combined facility. Agrify Insights™ features at
the facility level include:
● Production
Planning . The production planning feature is designed to maximize a facility’s
utilization by executing a “best-fit” scheduling algorithm to selected Grow Plans
across VFUs that have been deployed at a customer facility. Since grow plans typically have
a different number of growing days that start on staggered schedules, this module is a critical
component for optimizing the planting and moving schedules, significantly increasing plant
production, and reducing the cost per pound of harvest.
● Workforce
Management . Agrify Insights™ includes a workforce planning feature to assign
tasks to staff. These tasks can be automatically assigned based on the user role or their
knowledge, skills, and abilities. The calendar displays the estimated time required to complete
plant-touching tasks on any given day.
● Automatic
Notification System . Users can select to subscribe to anomalous events, and users
are notified in the order in which they are listed. If a user does not acknowledge the notification
within the specified time frame, the next user in the list is notified, providing the business
with 24/7 monitoring and notifications.
● Preventative
Maintenance . Our equipment and facility preventative maintenance schedules and related
tasks are contained, tracked, and monitored within Agrify Insights™.
● Facility
Infrastructure Controls . Agrify Insights™ controls the irrigation on a facility
level and connects with the water chilled HVAC system and ambient lighting system, providing
our customers with a central piece of software for facility management.
Optimization
at the Business Level
Agrify
Insights™ analysis features enable customers to understand how cultivation decisions impact their overall business. Understanding
the data from the cultivation facility can help our customers better plan and make informed decisions that impact downstream parts of
their business.
● Consumables
Procurement Integration . Each task can also be assigned a set of consumables whose
inventory will be reduced when the task is started. This feature can help customers manage
supply levels and can automatically create purchase orders so that they never run out of
required supplies.
● Online
Standard Operating Procedures (“SOPs’’) and Safety Datasheets .
Agrify Insights™ hosts digital copies of our included Standard Operating Procedures
and datasheets, or users can upload their own via our content management system, ensuring
that the most recent version of SOPs and forms are available to users.
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● Roles-Based
Dashboards . Ability to obtain access to information specifically suited to your workforce’s
various needs. Facility owners have access to high-level information about crop yields and
equipment usage in an easy-to-understand scorecard. Farm managers receive a worksheet and
calendar that lets them manage their workforce and automatically assign plant-touching tasks.
This also provides facility managers with an ongoing window into consumables and lets them
set inventory levels.
● Data
Collection . Agrify Insights™ is a centralized repository for all data relating
to the cultivation aspects of our clients’ business, including research and development
testing data, and the ability to capture and compare test results. By doing so, Agrify Insights™
becomes a customers’ cultivation statement of record.
● Financial
Simulator / What If Scenarios . Our operating expenses (“OpEx”) calculator
enables users to evaluate impacts to profitability by changing hundreds of attributes including,
but not limited to, changes to costs in labor, electric, water, CO 2 , and growing
media as well as potential volatility in yields and pricing.
● Regulatory
Reporting Integration. We have integrated our software with Metrc, a leading seed-to-harvest
compliance management and tracking solution, which will enable our customers to handle most
regulatory reporting directly through Agrify Insights™.
Cultivation
Deployment Options
Rapid
Deployment Pack (“RDP”) Program
The
RDP program was established in 2022 to make it easier for a broader range of customers to access our award-winning cultivation technology.
Featuring our flagship VFUs in a prepackaged, self-contained, and quick-to-deploy format, the thoughtfully designed and engineered RDPs
offer an accelerated path to production, cash flow, and profitability for customers. By removing certain barriers and points of friction
with the RDPs, we can provide customers who have properly equipped facilities with best-in-class cultivation capabilities in potentially
as little as 90 days. Once installed, the modular nature of the RDPs allows for seamless expansion opportunities, enabling customers
the flexibility to grow and scale.
TTK
Solution
While
we do not intend to enter into any new TTK Solutions for the foreseeable future, we have deployed this program with certain key customers.
We also believe that our data-driven TTK Solution for cultivation solutions is unlike any other customer solution being offered and enables
our customers to get to market faster by providing them with our seamlessly integrated hardware and software offerings as well as access
to capital and a wide range of associated services from experts including consulting, training, design, engineering, and construction
to form what we believe is the most complete solution available from a single provider. We engage qualified cannabis operators in the
early phases of their business plans and provide critical support, typically over a 10-year period.
Our
TTK Solution provides our valued customers with the benefit of working with a single, highly qualified provider in what has historically
been a decentralized market full of piecemeal solutions that were not necessarily designed and engineered to work harmoniously with one
another. Given the significant shortcomings associated with traditional indoor grow methods across all commercial agriculture segments,
it was apparent that a new paradigm in indoor cultivation was needed, which is why we have brought a more modern, manufacturing style
approach that is process driven through technology and measured via data and analytics. Overall, our holistic approach to addressing
our customers’ cultivation needs treats their production facilities as an end-to-end ecosystem whose success depends on all components
working together optimally. Despite the rapidly growing cannabis and hemp industry, many growers and processors face some significant
obstacles to their operations that pose a serious threat to their long-term viability.
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We
believe Agrify’s proprietary TTK Solution is the key to resolving many of the challenges our customers encounter. We have set ourselves
apart by bringing to market a horticulturist expertise, bundled solution of state-of-the-art equipment, software and services that is
turn-key, end-to-end, fully integrated and optimized for precision growing and extraction. Agrify’s TTK Solution provides customers
with the following bundled equipment and services:
● Facility
design, lab design, and engineering services
● Facility
and lab build-out project management
● Agrify
VFUs
● Agrify
data driven Agrify Insights™
● Agrify
extraction products
● Expert
horticulturist training and ongoing support
Extraction
Solutions
While
we do not extract, come in contact with, distribute, process, or dispense cannabis or hemp or any cannabis or hemp derivatives that are
currently prohibited under U.S. federal law, our extraction equipment and business solutions can be used within indoor processing facilities
by fully licensed cannabis and hemp cultivators and processors or in some cases, by individual processors for individual use in compliance
with applicable law. We sell our proprietary extraction solutions to independent, licensed cultivators and processing labs.
Cannabis
represents a potential cornucopia of medicinal and pharmaceutical advancement. Cannabis produces over 550 different phytochemicals, over
120 of which are cannabinoids like tetrahydrocannabinol (“THC”) and cannabidiol (“CBD”). Other cannabinoids like
varins, cannabigerivarin (“CBGV”), tetrahydrocannabivarin (“THCV”), and cannabidivarin (“CBDV”) are
less well known and potentially offer significant value. As we continue to learn more about the complex chemical composition of
cannabis, the need for distillation solutions is clear. Distillation enables the identification, isolation, and separation of valuable
cannabis metabolites. The ability to take cannabis compounds distilled into their pure forms, and then recombine them into specific,
purposeful end-products could have significant potential for the pharmaceutical industry in the future.
As
stated previously, we strategically acquired four of the top brands in the extraction space in late 2021 and early 2022 in Precision
Extraction, PurePressure, Lab Society, and Cascade Sciences. These iconic brands encompass everything from hydrocarbon, alcohol, and
solventless extraction to distillation and post-processing and have supported and continue to support over 90% of legal operators in
one fashion or another.
Combined,
these four acquisitions provide what we believe to be the most comprehensive extraction solutions from a single provider, with over 7,000
customers, including over 30 Multi-State-Operators, and some of the best extraction labs in the industry. Our leading extraction brands
provide equipment and solutions for extraction, post-processing, and testing for the cannabis and hemp industries. The extraction, post-processing
and testing services are complementary and highly attractive areas of the supply chain.
Our
extraction division now offers cutting-edge technologies and end-to-end service solutions. Solutions from the extraction division include
equipment, technology, facility and lab design, training, and extensive research and development capabilities. By providing new hardware-as-a-service
we intend to capture higher margin recurring revenue and supply chain optimization through streamlined product sourcing, purchasing,
manufacturing, and warehousing.
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These
acquisitions have greatly expanded our product and service offerings in the post-harvest segment of the supply chain. We believe we are
positioning Agrify as one of the most vertically integrated total solutions provider for our cannabis and hemp customers. According to
a report published by Grand View Research in November 2022, the global cannabis extraction market is expected to potentially grow to
$15.5 billion by 2030, and as the cannabis industry continues to experience rapid growth globally, we expect the sales of our extraction
solutions to follow a similar growth trajectory.
Cannabis
Market Opportunity
While
we do not cultivate, come in contact with, distribute or dispense cannabis or any cannabis derivatives that are currently prohibited
under U.S. federal law, our cultivation solutions can be used within state-licensed indoor grow facilities by cannabis cultivators if
they choose to do so.
In
the U.S., the development and growth of the regulated medical and recreational (adult-use) cannabis industry has generally been driven
by state law and regulation, and accordingly, the market varies on a state-by-state basis. State laws that legalize and regulate cannabis
for medicinal reasons allow patients to consume cannabis with a designated healthcare provider’s recommendation, subject to various
requirements and limitations. As of January 2024, 39 states have passed laws allowing their citizens to use medical cannabis. On top
of this medical condition growth trend, there has been a slow but steady increase in the number of states that have chosen to legalize
cannabis for recreational use. As of January 2024, 24 states have passed laws allowing their citizens to use recreational cannabis. Shifting
public attitudes and state law and legislative activity are driving this change as indicated by a 2019 poll by Quinnipiac University
that found that 93% of Americans support patient access to medical-use cannabis if recommended by a doctor, which was the same level
of support from a similar poll conducted by Quinnipiac University in 2018. Similarly, the trend toward further legalization and regulation
of cannabis sales is spreading globally. As of the date of this report, over 70 countries outside the U.S. currently have medicinal cannabis
regulation in force, and that number is expected to significantly increase over time.
Given
that the market size of legal cannabis in the U.S. in 2022 was estimated to be $33.6 billion according to MJBiz Daily, and 88% of legal
U.S. cannabis cultivators grow indoors (Fluence 2022 Industry lighting report), we estimate that the indoor segment of the legal U.S.
cannabis sector is a $30 billion market with the expectation that there will be even more growth on the horizon. A recent report from
Fortune Business Insights projected global cannabis revenue to reach $57.18 billion in 2023, with annual growth rate of 34.03%, with
a projected global market volume of $444.34 billion by 2030.
The
different cultivation environments for cannabis each have advantages and disadvantages, and this leads to a variance in price points
based on quality, actual and perceived, and process. Based on the Fluence 2022 state of the cannabis industry lighting report, 88% of
cultivators have some or all of their facilities growing indoors, up 9% over 2021.
Competitive
Landscape
We
believe our full suite of product offerings forms an unmatched ecosystem for indoor growing and extraction. At this time, our VFUs, Agrify
Insights™, extraction solutions, our facility design and build services, and our engineering/installation services are highly differentiated
from anything else on the market.
At
the same time, our customers are actively being approached by a variety of companies who do offer compelling standalone products and
services, so we recognize that our customers do have choices and alternatives, and they also need to factor in opportunity costs whenever
they make purchasing decisions. Consequently, we more broadly define our competition as any other company going after the same finite
budget dollars as us in the indoor agriculture space. We have highlighted below the most notable players that operate across some of
the same functional, highly fragmented areas of agriculture technology that we operate.
● mi-Integrated
Vertical Cultivation Systems - Sprout AI
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● Aeroponic
Systems - AEssenceGrows and Thrive Growing
● Horticultural
Lighting - Gavita, Fluence, VividGro, Hydrofarm, GrowGeneration, Hawthorne and Heliospectra
● Extraction
Solutions - ExtractionTek Solutions, Mach Technologies, Decimal Engineering, Low
Temp Plates, Whistler Technologies, Maratek and Hashatron
● Monitoring
Software - Grownetics and Trym
● Cultivation
Software - Quantum Leaf, Flourish, and Grow Link
● Vertical
Cultivation Racking Systems - Pipp Horticulture and Montel
Despite
the presence of some well-funded and well-established competitors who offer pieces of what we do, we are able to compete on the basis
of several defensible factors including our industry experience, our technical expertise, the differentiated value proposition of our
individual offerings, and our positioning as a single-source provider. However, we believe above all else, it is our ability to offer
an unrivaled level of precision through a total end-to-end turnkey solution that sets us apart from existing competitors and potential
new market entrants.
Our
Competitive Strengths
We
believe our business has, and our future success will be driven by, the following competitive strengths:
● Innovative
Technology in an Attractive Growing Industry . Our innovative solutions are aimed
at large and growing U.S. domestic and global markets. We believe we are the only provider
of a fully integrated end-to-end hardware and software turnkey solution for indoor cultivation
and extraction facilities that allows customers to produce high-quality products with consistency
at scale while meeting the growing demand and needs of end users at a relatively low cost.
As such, we believe we have a first mover advantage due to innovating this new type of smart
cannabis and hemp cultivation and processing solution, which is already designed, manufactured,
and implemented in several commercial scale deployments across multiple states within the
U.S.
● Integrated
Proprietary Components . We design and create our own hardware, software, and SOPs
from the ground up rather than buying piecemeal from third parties. We take a systems-engineered
integrated approach that we believe has inherent advantages over other, ad-hoc systems.
● Emphasis
on Precision and Consistency Through Our Proprietary Grow Solutions . While being
able to help our customers increase capacity, yield and consequently revenues holds a tremendous
amount of value, we believe that our biggest differentiator is our ability to impact the
actual quality and consistency of the output by controlling the environment in which the
crops are grown and all the variables that influence harvests with an unparalleled level
of precision. The by-product of our TTK Solution is that our customers can create consistent
high-quality products with repeatability from anywhere similar to any other consumer product
company that provides a branded food or drink product.
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● Emphasis
on Precision and Consistency Through Our Extraction Division. In addition to our
premium grow solutions, we have begun offering our customers industry leading cannabis and
hemp extraction equipment, design, and training solutions. By acquiring leading brands earlier
this year, we are immediately able to offer our customers premium solutions to meet their
processing needs in this rapidly expanding sector.
● Market
Knowledge and Understanding . We have extensive experience with controlled agriculture
environments, extraction, post-processing, and scale-up manufacturing, as well as industry
technical knowledge and relationships. We are keenly aware of the struggles that indoor cultivators
and extractors face, and we serve as a credible and collaborative partner through the entire
customer lifecycle. We believe that our fully integrated TTK Solution, extraction equipment
and ancillary services are the key to resolving many of the challenges our customers face.
● Differentiated
Business Model . Unlike many of our competitors, we offer a diversified mix of hardware,
software, and services, which leads to potential multiple revenue streams. Given the nature
of our deployments, we become deeply embedded in our customers’ operations through
our numerous product offerings. This puts us in a position where customer success is directly
tied to our equipment. Our ability to differentiate our business model provides us with multiple
opportunities to expand our installed user base, which we believe will lead to future high-margin
and stable recurring SaaS revenues, via our Agrify Insights™ and production fee revenues.
Our
Customers
We
primarily market and sell our products to newly licensed, well-funded producers in a single market as well as multi-state operators.
Our customers choose us for several reasons, including the breadth and availability of the products we offer, our extensive expertise,
and the quality of our customer service. For large multi-state operators, our solutions allow operators to produce consistent high-quality
products regardless of the geographic locations where they are licensed to operate. Our system removes the variations of local grow environments,
and also provides consistent standard operating procedures across different facilities, helping every facility to achieve the highest
Good Manufacturing Processes standards. Our ability to provide a “one-stop shop” experience allows us to be the preferred
vendor to many of these customers by streamlining their entry or expansion of their cultivation capabilities. In addition, we believe
our customers find great value in the advice and recommendations provided by our knowledgeable sales and service associates, which further
increases demand for our products.
We
believe the nature of our solutions and our high-touch customer service model strengthens relationships, builds loyalty and drives repeat
business as our customers’ businesses expand. In addition, we feel as if our premium product lines and comprehensive product portfolio
position us well to meet our customers’ needs. Furthermore, we fully anticipate that we will be able to leverage all the data that
we are collecting from our existing customer base to make continuous improvements to our offerings and better serve our current and new
customers in the future.
To
date, we have customers across the U.S. and internationally in the cannabis and hemp industry and are of all sizes, ranging from small,
single location businesses to multi-state enterprise operations that use Agrify’s solutions. For the year ended December 31, 2023,
no customer represented more than 10% of revenues; however, for the year ended December 31, 2022, we had two customers that represented
more than 10% of total revenues at 13% and 15% respectively.
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Our
Growth Strategy
We
have developed a multi-pronged growth strategy as described below to help us capitalize on the sizable opportunity at hand. Through methodical
sales and marketing efforts, cultivation and extraction solutions, and scale-up manufacturing, we believe we have implemented several
key initiatives we can use to grow our business more effectively. We also intend to opportunistically pursue the strategies described
below to continue our upward trajectory and enhance shareholder value. We believe we have significantly improved our new bookings and
qualified pipeline. With our expanded product line that includes quality extraction solutions, we have become more attractive to our
prospects and customers, enhancing our overall appeal and the scope of opportunities we are able to pursue. We expect our qualified pipeline
and new bookings of opportunities to continue to grow.
Sales
and Marketing
Rigorous
Sales Process and Strong Infrastructure in Place to Drive Revenue Growth
We
utilize a highly structured sales process to evaluate potential new opportunities and then advance vetted prospects through the different
phases of our qualified pipeline. Our salespeople spend most of their time building relationships and qualifying opportunities to make
closing new business more streamlined, collaborative, and organic in nature. There are specific requirements, milestones, and events
that we have identified along the sales process that must be met to move prospects through and convert them from vetted opportunities
into committed sales orders within a 12-month period. At each phase of the pipeline, a prospect opportunity is assigned a probability
value for closing, providing management production forecast ability.
Our
sales team works to convert our qualified pipeline of opportunities into confirmed contractual bookings. At the time of this report,
our sales team was comprised of one Director of Business Development, Account Managers, Customer Support and Success Manager, Customer
Service Support Reps, and a Sales Support Admin. Additionally, we take measures to ensure that all members of the sales organization
are cross-trained on cultivation and extraction products.
We
believe our business has, and our future success will be driven by, the following sales and marketing strategy:
● Direct
Marketing . We capitalize on our direct marketing efforts by utilizing our internal
CRM database, as well as the external help of trusted industry databases to target the right
audience. Emails go out on a weekly basis and are subdivided by product focus and state,
depending on the campaign. We use A/B testing in our email campaign strategy to harness meaningful
messages.
● Social
Media and Thought Leadership. Through the creation and promotion of engaging content
that positions us as a thought leader, we continue to organically grow our social media audience.
We share original videos, photography, industry-related articles, and blog content on a consistent
basis. By developing strong relationships with our customers and sharing testimonials as
well as live footage of our products being in action, we are better positioning ourselves
on social. Furthermore, we promote our social media in our email communications, on our website,
and through paid advertising. We also keep our finger on the pulse of trends and competitors
in the market, remaining in the know.
● Trade
Shows. Trade shows and events related to the cannabis industry have proven to be
highly effective. When attending trade shows and events, we typically position ourselves
front and center, with high-level sponsorships, outstanding booth placement, and speaking
opportunities. Our product and subject matter experts take advantage of speaking opportunities,
positioning Agrify as an industry thought leader. We expect to continue to grow our industry
presence by generating leads using conferences as a platform. The trade show plan has been
carefully vetted to ensure that these shows are reputable, have a strong business-to-business
focus, high foot-traffic rates, as well as hosted in a desirable market.
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● Paid
Advertising . We utilize paid advertising such as banner ads on high-trafficked
media sites that largely focus on cannabis and other relevant topics. We provide content
offers and other downloadable materials to capture these leads. As we gain experience through
these different marketing initiatives, we will make appropriate spending adjustments with
our most effective outlets. We seek to expand our business both nationally and internationally
and will do so when we have proven, viable marketing options available to us.
● Public
Relations Campaigns. We have actively utilized press releases, industry and investor
events, and interviews and speaking engagements to increase awareness of our brand, solutions,
customer engagements, and other relevant company developments. With our industry positioning
using thought leadership and ongoing participation in industry conferences, we have been
highlighted through the Newswire and featured in a variety of media outlets. We will continue
to sponsor and present keynotes at industry-related events including technology and agriculture
conferences, podcasts, radio shows and more to continue to gain press and ultimately more
exposure.
Scale-Up
Manufacturing Capabilities in Order to Meet the Increasing Demand for Our Grow Solutions
We
currently use both internal and external manufacturing to support our increasing demand. Internal production is primarily at our Michigan
and Colorado facilities. Externally, we use a variety of contract manufacturers (“CMs”) in the U.S. and in Asia for prototyping
and volume manufacturing, and we plan to expand our capabilities to meet the increasing demand for our grow solutions. We design the
systems internally, and then work with our CMs and suppliers to refine, prototype, and test the designs. The designs are documented at
a level that allows us to have our products manufactured at multiple CMs, both in the U.S. and abroad. As demand increases beyond our
internal capacities additional volume can be shifted to external manufacturing to ensure market demands are met.
Overall,
our approach to manufacturing is to use both internal and external manufacturing capabilities to prototype, iterate, and begin initial
production, then transition to volume production. As volumes increase, this will also include increasing production in lower-cost geographies,
which results in both rapid time-to-market and low production costs. As we grow, we intend to continually analyze and evolve our manufacturing
capabilities to best meet our customers’ needs while always focusing on ways to maximize operating margins.
Intellectual
Property
We
rely on a combination of patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret, including federal, state and common law rights in the U.S. and
other countries, nondisclosure agreements, and other measures to protect our intellectual property. We require our employees, consultants,
and advisors to execute confidentiality agreements and to agree to disclose and assign to us all inventions conceived under their respective
employment, consultant, or advisor agreement, using our property, or which relate to our business. Despite any measures taken to protect
our intellectual property, unauthorized parties may attempt to copy aspects of our products or to obtain and use information that we
regard as proprietary. Our business is affected by our ability to protect against misappropriation and infringement of our intellectual
property, including our trademarks, service marks, patents, domain names, copyrights and other proprietary rights.
Patents
We
hold 20 patents in the U.S. We also have one pending patent application. These patents and patents applications are directed to, among
other things, extraction and processing of botanicals and particular compounds.
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Trademarks
and Copyrights
We
own or have applications for numerous national and state trademarks which are essential to our businesses, including Agrify, Precision,
PurePressure, PressWare, Lab Society and Elitelab, among others. In addition, we recognize common-law trademark rights AGRIFY INSIGHTS
and AGRINAMICS for SaaS products.
Our
subsidiary, Agrify Brands, LLC is the owner of certain common-law trademarks that it licenses to third parties. Marks covered by the
license include, DAWG STAR (including multiple logo designs), WESTERN CULTURED (including multiple logo designs), TWISTED LEGION (logo),
WAXTRONAUT (including multiple logo designs) and WAXTRONAUT COSMICALLY CURATED EXTRACTS.
Although
we have not sought copyright registration for our technology or works to date, we rely on common law copyright and trade secret protections
in relation to our TechOps/ Agrify Insights™ computer program for indoor agriculture management. We have registered our Internet
domain names related to our business. We license software from third parties and utilize open-source software for integration into our
applications.
In
addition, while we know that our current product and service capabilities are highly novel and compelling, we do not intend to be complacent.
We will continue to learn from our customers and from the market, and if there is an opportunity to deploy a new and improved version
of one of our offerings or if we decide there is room in the market for a new type of solution, we fully intend to diligently explore
those possibilities to augment our existing business and grow our reach.
Human
Capital Resources
As
of March 31st, 2024, we had a total of 39 employees, of which 39 are full-time employees. None of our employees are subject to collective
bargaining agreements. We consider our relationship with our employees to be good.
We
strive to attract and retain diverse, high-caliber employees who raise the talent bar by offering competitive compensation and benefit
packages, regardless of their gender, race, or other personal characteristics. We regularly review and survey our compensation and benefit
programs against the market to ensure we remain competitive in our hiring practices. We provide employee salaries that are competitive
and consider factors such as an employee’s role and experience, the location of their job and their performance. In addition to
our competitive salaries, to enhance our employees’ sense of participation in the company and to further align their interests
with those of our stockholders, we offer equity packages to a majority of our employees. The principal purposes of our equity incentive
plan are to attract, retain and reward personnel through the granting of stock-based compensation awards, in order to increase stockholder
value and the success of our company by motivating such individuals to perform to the best of their abilities and achieve our objectives.
We
strive to hire, develop, and retain talent that continuously raises the performance bar. We encourage, support, and compensate our employees
based on our philosophy of recognizing and rewarding exceptional performance. We believe that performance and development is an ongoing
process in which all employees should be active participants. Individual and company key performance goals are linked to employee compensation.
Regulatory
Implications of Providing Equipment and Services in the Cannabis and Hemp Industry
We
sell products and services that end users may purchase for use in industries or segments, including the growing and processing of cannabis
and hemp, which are subject to varying, inconsistent, and rapidly changing laws, regulations, administrative practices, enforcement approaches,
judicial interpretations, and consumer perceptions. For example, certain countries and 36 U.S. states have adopted frameworks that authorize,
regulate, and tax the cultivation, processing, sale, and use of cannabis for medicinal and/or non-medicinal use, while the U.S. Controlled
Substances Act and the laws of other U.S. states prohibit growing cannabis. In addition, with the passage of the Farm Bill in December
2018, hemp cultivation is now broadly permitted. The Farm Bill explicitly allows the transfer of hemp-derived products across state lines
for commercial or other purposes. It also removes restrictions on the sale, transport, or possession of hemp-derived products, so long
as those items are produced in a manner consistent with the law. Our products are multi-purpose products and may be used on a wide range
of plants and are purchased by cultivators who may grow any variety of plants, including cannabis and hemp.
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Although
the majority of states now have laws that regulate or decriminalize various types of cannabis use, marijuana remains a Schedule I drug
under the Controlled Substances Act, making it illegal under federal law in the U.S. to, among other things, cultivate, distribute or
possess cannabis in the U.S. In those states in which the use of marijuana has been legalized, its use remains a violation of federal
law pursuant to the Controlled Substances Act. The Controlled Substances Act classifies marijuana as a Schedule I controlled substance,
and as such, medical and adult cannabis use is illegal under U.S. federal law. Unless and until the U.S. Congress amends the Controlled
Substances Act with respect to marijuana (and the President approves such amendment), there is a risk that federal authorities may enforce
current federal law. Financial transactions involving proceeds generated by, or intended to promote, cannabis-related business activities
in the U.S. may form the basis for prosecution under applicable U.S. federal money laundering legislation. The approach to enforcement
of such laws by the federal government in the U.S. has trended toward non-enforcement against individuals and businesses that comply
with medical or adult-use cannabis regulatory programs in states where such programs are legal, strict compliance with state laws with
respect to cannabis.
In
most states that have legalized medical- and recreational-use cannabis in some form, the growing, processing and/or dispensing of cannabis
generally requires that the operator obtain one or more licenses in accordance with applicable state requirements. In addition, many
states regulate various aspects of the growing, processing and/or dispensing of cannabis and hemp. Local governments in some cases also
impose rules and regulations on the manner of operating cannabis and hemp businesses. As a result, applicable state and local laws and
regulations vary widely, including, but not limited to, regulations governing the medical cannabis program, product testing, the level
of enforcement by state and local authorities on non-licensed cannabis operators, state and local taxation of regulated cannabis products,
local municipality bans on operations and operator licensing processes and renewals.
As
part of its rigorous due diligence policy on all potential customers, the Company carefully reviews the appropriate licensure of each
potential customer in the cannabis and hemp industry for compliance with applicable local, state, and federal laws. The Company is not
involved in the cultivation, processing, or retail of cannabis products and never takes a controlling interest in any of the operations
of its cannabis customers as a matter of state law.
Environmental
Regulations
We
are not aware of any environmental laws that have been enacted, nor are we aware of any such laws being contemplated for the future,
that directly impact our business.
Implications
of Being an Emerging Growth Company and Smaller Reporting Company
We
qualify as an “emerging growth company” as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012, which we refer to
as the JOBS Act. As a result, we are permitted to, and intend to, rely on exemptions from certain disclosure requirements that are applicable
to other companies that are not emerging growth companies. Accordingly, for so long as we are an “emerging growth company,”
we will not be required to:
● engage
an auditor to report on our internal controls over financial reporting pursuant to Section
404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or the Sarbanes-Oxley Act;
● comply
with any requirement that may be adopted by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board,
or the PCAOB, regarding mandatory audit firm rotation or a supplement to the auditor’s
report providing additional information about the audit and the financial statements (i.e.,
an auditor discussion and analysis);
● submit
certain executive compensation matters to shareholder advisory votes, such as “say-on-pay,”
“say-on-frequency,” and “say-on-golden parachutes;” or
● disclose
certain executive compensation-related items such as the correlation between executive compensation
and performance and the comparison of the chief executive officer’s compensation to
median employee compensation.
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In
addition, the JOBS Act provides that an “emerging growth company” can use the extended transition period for complying with
new or revised accounting standards.
We
will remain an “emerging growth company” until the earliest to occur of:
● our
reporting $1 billion or more in annual gross revenues;
● our
issuance, in a three-year period, of more than $1 billion in non-convertible debt;
● the
end of the fiscal year in which the market value of our Common Stock held by non-affiliates
exceeds $700 million on the last business day of our second fiscal quarter; and
◦ December
31, 2026.
We
cannot predict if investors will find our securities less attractive because we may rely on these exemptions, which could result in a
less active trading market for our securities and increased volatility in the price of our securities.
Finally,
we are a “smaller reporting company” (and may continue to qualify as such even after we no longer qualify as an emerging
growth company) and accordingly may provide less public disclosure than larger public companies, including the inclusion of only two
years of audited financial statements and only two years of management’s discussion and analysis of financial condition and results
of operations disclosure. As a result, the information that we provide to our stockholders may be different than you might receive from
other public reporting companies in which you hold equity interests.
Corporate
Information
Our
executive offices are located at 2468 Industrial Row, Dr., Troy, Michigan 48084. Our telephone number at our executive offices is (855)
420-0020.
Agrify
Corporation was incorporated in the state of Nevada on June 6, 2016, originally incorporated as Agrinamics, Inc. (“Agrinamics”).
On September 16, 2019, Agrinamics amended its articles of incorporation to reflect a name change to Agrify Corporation.
Available
Information
The
Company’s Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to reports filed pursuant to Sections
13(a) and 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), are filed with the SEC. We are subject
to the informational requirements of the Exchange Act and file or furnish reports, proxy statements and other information with the SEC.
Such reports and other information filed by us with the SEC are available free of charge at https://ir.agrify.com/financials-and-filings/sec-filings
when such reports are available on the SEC’s website. The SEC maintains an Internet site that contains reports, proxy and information
statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC at www.sec.gov. We periodically provide other
information for investors on our corporate website, www.agrify.com, and our investor relations website, investor.gnln.com. This includes
press releases and other information about financial performance, information on corporate governance and details related to our annual
meeting of shareholders. The information contained on the websites referenced in this Form 10-K is not incorporated by reference into
this filing. Further, our references to website URLs are intended to be inactive textual references only.
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