Chicago-based Rise Gardens, founded by serial entrepreneur Hank Adams, announced Thursday the closing of their seed investment round. The $2.6M round was led by San Francisco-based True Ventures and includes prominent Chicago business leaders.

Rise Gardens three-level in-home garden system. An easy, productive and connected garden with modular components to facilitate growing a wide variety of herbs, greens, veggies, vining plants, micro greens and favorites such as tomatoes and peppers. Elegant design for any home and suitable for any level of expertise.
Rise Gardens three-level in-home garden system. An easy, productive and connected garden with modular components to facilitate growing a wide variety of herbs, greens, veggies, vining plants, micro greens and favorites such as tomatoes and peppers. Elegant design for any home and suitable for any level of expertise.
"Thanks to the hard work of a passionate team, we have built a productive and easy-to-use indoor gardening system that consumers love," said Hank Adams, Founder and CEO, Rise Gardens. "We're thrilled to have True Ventures, with their amazing track record and capabilities, choose to invest in us. I'm also very grateful for the support of incredible tech leaders who's backing helped get us to this important milestone. Together they will help us achieve a tangible social impact by improving nutrition for all of our customers."

Rise Gardens is a smart indoor hydroponic gardening system, complete with everything you need to grow your own food at home year-round. The system is designed with simplicity and variety in mind. The garden, paired with a sophisticated app and supplies mailed to customers, provides a seamless gardening experience that's perfect for novices and connoisseurs alike. It is modular to allow for 1, 2 or 3 levels of growth and can grow everything from greens and herbs to tomatoes and beets. No other system allows for such variety.

"At True, we aspire to work with entrepreneurs like Hank who are focused on the changing the way society works in positive ways," said Jon Callaghan, co-founder of True Ventures. "The Rise Gardens team is building an inspiring product that makes indoor farming simple and accessible, which enables customers to grow their own food and take more control of their own food supply chain. We are impressed by their growth and look forward to helping them scale."

Rise Gardens' successful seed round includes leaders in the investment and business community. In addition to several un-named tech heavyweights from Chicago and San Francisco the round includes: Michael Alter (Alter Group, WNBA Sky), Pat Vihtelic (Founder, Home Chef), Lee Rosenberg (seasoned venture investor), Howard Tullman (former CEO of 1871), Jai Shekhawat (Founder of Fieldglass), Doug Fogelson (artist and investor) and Pamela Roussos (Chief Innovation Officer at Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship, Santa Clara University).

The round follows a period of exponential growth by the company since its launch in Q4 of 2019. Sales have doubled every month since January with a 750% growth rate over the previous quarter. Customers have planted 6,000 plants in the last two months alone, which is 1,500 pounds of produce grown for more than 300 families across the United States, Canada and Mexico.

About Rise Gardens
Rise Gardens is an innovative consumer product designed for indoor hydroponic vegetable gardening. The system makes a complicated process easy, productive and fun for gardeners constrained by busy schedules, short growing seasons, or access to land in urban settings. It is a platform that allows for expansion and enables growing a wide variety of greens and vegetables. Rise Gardens is a mission-driven business that encourages better nutrition and healthy outcomes by partnering with schools to build nutrition education into the classroom.

About True Ventures
Founded in 2005, True Ventures is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that invests in early stage technology startups. With more than $2 billion under management, True provides seed and Series A financing to entrepreneurs in today's fastest growing markets. The True team believes creativity flourishes when founders are supported fully and empowered to pursue brave ideas. To that end, the firm offers programs that inspire both professional and personal growth. To date, True has helped more than 300 companies launch and scale their businesses, creating over 20,000 jobs worldwide. To learn more, visit www.trueventures.com.