RotoGro finalizes $4.5M raising

Written By JOSHUA SANTOS

Roto-Gro International Limited (trading on the Australian Securities Exchange under the symbol ASX: RGI) has completed the final tranche of its $4.5 million capital raise.

Funds generated from the capital raise will facilitate the growth of the RotoGro business globally. The public company's wholly-owned Canadian subsidiary, Roto-Gro World Wide (Canada) Inc., has recently established a manufacturing facility together with research and development labs in Bolton, while continuing to bolster its sales and management teams, according to a recent news release.

“We are proud to be located and operating in Caledon. We are growing and expanding here”, said Tim Durnford, Chief Operations Officer of RotoGro.

“Next month, we will be celebrating our first anniversary at our new state-of-the-art facility located on Healey Road. We manufacture our RotoGro hydroponic garden systems and conduct research and development at this facility”.

The final tranche of the most recent capital raise for the RotoGro public company involved the issuance of 5,418,698 shares, completing a total of 12,000,000 new fully paid ordinary shares issued at $0.38 per share.

“Our public company shares are traded on the Australian Securities Exchange”, said Durnford.

“Publicly traded companies may issue additional stock on an annual basis for sale to the public. However, there are limits as to how much stock they can issue”, said Durnford.

Durnford said RotoGro is conducting research regarding the cultivation of lawful cannabis and certain types of produce (such as tomatoes, lettuce and strawberries) at its Bolton plant.

“We manufacture proprietary RotoGro rotational hydroponic garden systems which are patented and patent-pending in North America. We have developed cultivation technology for growing lawful cannabis, nutraceuticals and fruits and vegetables. We also operate a state of the art research lab here in our facility”, said Durnford.

“RotoGro conducts ongoing research to help our customers identify which of their crops are best suited for our technology; to determine the optimum growing conditions in terms of nutrients, lighting cycle, carbon dioxide, water and humidity, and to validate the yields that can be achieved for a variety of plant species. This data is used to create fully automated “recipes” using our proprietary software, iGrow, which helps our customers to achieve the best results”.

The company claims that its fully automated garden system helps create uniform growth patterns that make harvesting projects and scheduling easier for the grower. The compression

from the rotating growing environment and a concept called “gravitropism” gives the plants better flavour profiles, increased nutrient uptake and higher yields in general.

This is how a RotoGro system works: Seedlings are inserted into a grow medium (typically, “rockwool” cubes) which are secured in quick-drain trays in a proprietary flood and drain system. These trays are then inserted into the cylindrical drum which is the centerpiece of the motorized garden system. These trays revolve 24 hours a day around centre-fixed high-output lamps.

RotoGro also claims that its hydroponic garden systems are easier to operate, requiring lower operating costs, producing bigger yields and resulting in larger profits for business., as compared to traditional flat-bed growing systems.

“We're completing continuous experimentation with different light sources for the purpose of providing our customers with “recipes” using our iGrow software that will help them to understand the conditions necessary to cultivate the highest quality plants at the highest possible yields”, said Durnford.

Durnford said they are continuing to enhance and develop their proprietary iGrow automated monitoring and control software.

“Our proprietary hardware (RotoGro's patented and patent-pending rotational hydroponic garden systems) and our proprietary iGrow software are fully-integrated to provide a turn-key, automated solution to our customers. Our system simplifies many of the cultivator's tasks through the monitoring of ongoing operations including light cycles, water and nutrient levels, environmental inputs, feeding schedules, etc.”.

Durnford is confident that the legalization of cannabis in Canada will have a beneficial impact on the company because it claims that RotoGro systems produce more high-quality plants per square foot than any other cultivation method.

“Many of our customers and prospective customers are either licensed cannabis producers or are in the process of securing license approvals from Health Canada”, said Durnford.”

“We are in the cultivation management business. We collaborate with our customers to provide them with industry-leading support and sustainable, safe and secure cultivation solutions. RotoGro is the future, available today”.