Cold chain startup set to ‘revolutionize’ industry
Startup cold storage developer and operator Envision Cold this week officially launched its cold chain platform with a $500 million investment from an undisclosed capital partner that will allow Envision to acquire and develop over $1.5 billion of cold storage assets.
The firm, founded last year in Atlanta, provides complete services along the full scope of cold chain, including transportation, import and export services, and real estate development. Envision engaged a real estate development team to oversee all ground-up development projects, which will be essential to its growth, Envision reported.
“We are excited to announce the launch of Envision and our plans to build one of the preeminent cold storage companies in North America,” Austin Solem, Envision CEO, said in a news release. “The magnitude of this investment was driven by the strength of not only our team’s commitment to innovation and service but also to the opportunity within the market itself.
“The cold storage industry is stronger than ever, but it needs more national providers to satisfy the increasing demand.”
Since the company’s inception, Envision has closed on acquiring cold storage operations and assets in Oakland and San Francisco, California, Laredo, Texas, and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The company plans to continue acquiring and developing a network of facilities across North America, focusing on markets that are underserved by cold storage from both a physical infrastructure and customer service perspective.
Envision is led by an executive team with a deep history in the cold storage industry, having previously worked together at Americold, the world’s second-largest cold storage owner/operator. Austin Solem (CEO) previously launched and ran Americold’s M&A department and played a pivotal role in taking the company public in 2018. While at Americold, he was instrumental in structuring acquisitions totaling $4.6 billion and comprising 99 facilities in 12 countries. Stephen Draper (COO) has 30 years of cold storage experience and was responsible for Americold’s operations in the Southeast region, which consisted of about 50 facilities across 14 states and 3,000 employees. Eric Diaz (CFO) oversaw all regional and operations finance activities for North America Warehouse, Transportation, and 3PL Managed business segments.
“We are proud to have represented Envision in the capitalization by a well-respected institutional investor,” said Jordan Roeschlaub, co-head of debt and structured finance at Newmark, which secured the initial investment for Envision. “Led by an expert team, we expect Envision to have a great runway to create scale in the cold storage sector.”
