We’re excited to announce our second investment from the Igniterate Social Impact fund in Thrive Lot.

The problem the company is addressing:

The fruits and vegetables we eat are significantly less nutritious than the produce our parents and grandparents ate growing up (Scientific American). The infrastructure required to provide “fresh produce” at a local grocery store provides increased carbon emissions while delivering less nutritious foods. What if there was a way that people could grow their own food while improving the aesthetic of their properties?

Thrive Lot’s Solution:

Thrive Lot is building the first yard-to-table marketplace connecting agro-ecologist landscapers with homeowners to allow people to build sustainable edible landscapes on their property. Turning traditionally aesthetic-focused landscaping projects into self-sustaining gardens that reduce consumers’ reliance on buying produce from a grocery store, and the underlying transportation infrastructure.

Why We Invested:

We believe that Thrive Lot will reduce our reliance on the overworked food supply chain and provide consumers fresh, local (as local as it gets) produce to communities with a lower environmental impact. As more eco- and health-conscious customers buy homes we believe the future will be filled with greener, more lush landscapes that are purpose-built around feeding local communities. From the founders' background in Agriculture (Justin being a National 4H eco-design winner growing up) to a team of developers obsessed with building the tools to help homeowners bring their ideas to life.

Impact:

By providing families and communities local access to grow their own produce we will be able to provide healthy, more nutritious food that removes the environmental harm of industrial agriculture and the grocery supply chain. We expect to see multiple layers of impact:

1. Improving the nutrition value of the produce Thrive Lot consumers eat.
2. Reduced carbon emissions from less transportation from source to consumption and less reliance on corporate farmers.
3. Increase carbon sequestration from converting a traditional property into an ecological landscape.

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