Revolutionizing Turf Grass for a Sustainable World
NextGrass is developing a unique grass strain that decreases water requirements by up to 90%, drastically reduces maintenance costs, and transforms lawns into a carbon positive contributor
About Us
NextGrass was Founded in 2023 and is led by a team of highly experienced entrepreneurs and a slate of strong strategic partners including: The Weizmann Institute of Science (with world renowned Prof. Asaph Aharoni as research lead), Kibbutz Gaash (the oldest nursery and largest supplier of varieties grass in Israel), and Plaza Capital (a Canadian family office that specializes in investments and the Canadian capital markets)
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NextGrass is engaged in the research and development of a wide array of new grass varieties that will disrupt the industry by dramatically decreasing water consumption, maintenance costs, and produce a positive carbon footprint. NextGrass in partnership with the Weizmann Institute is building an unprecedented portfolio of IP and related industry solutions
The Problem
The size of the turf grass industry was $11.8B in 2020 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.5%, reaching $18.1B by 2028. But not everything is green in the world of grass.
Lawn maintenance costs up to $68B/year and releases over ~47Mt CO2 (the equivalent of 10.4M cars being driven for 1 year)
Water consumption
The average American household uses 320 gallons of water per day, with ~30% going towards watering the grass
At $250 per household, it costs Americans ~$32.8B/year to water their lawns
Mowing and lawn care
With an average spend of $200/year for lawn care, this translates to a $10.8B annual spend for Americans.
Lawn and gardening equipment released more than 22 MtCO2 (million tons of CO2) emissions in 2018
Use of fertilizers
Over 90M pounds of fertilizer is used in lawn maintenance, costing $24.4B/year
About 25 Mt CO2 is released each year in the US from the use of fertilizers
Our Technology
NextGrass is developing technology to genetically manipulate several important turfgrass varieties and applying it to improve targeted turfgrass species with respect to drought tolerance, flowering time and other traits.
We have implemented an advanced strategy for the genetic manipulation of grass species and have established unique methods for developing innovative products. These species arose from the most familiar grass varieties in the industry, which are used on over 65M acres worldwide.
Team & Partners
Our team & partners combine the holy trinity of innovation, field experience and financial experience to bring our products to the market in the best quality and in the most successful time
TBD
General Manager
Prof. Asaph Aharoni
Scientific, Co-Founder
Dani Elmaliach
Grass Senior Advisor
Uriel Avni
Chairman of the board
Plaza Capital Inc.
Plaza Capital is a Canadian family office that specializes in investments and the Canadian capital market.
Kibbutz Gaash
Kibbutz Gaash is comprised of leading professionals in the grass field with the richest and most comprehensive experience in Israel (+40 years of experience)
Weizmann Institute of Science
The Weizmann Institute of Science is one of the world’s leading multidisciplinary basic research institutions in the natural and exact sciences