vertical farming
Babylon Micro-Farms is bringing vertical farming to K-12 classes
In an e-mail exchange, Babylon Micro-Farms CEO Alexander Oleson tells me “we’ll have these in every school and apartment one day.” It’s a nice vision, and really the level of…
To boost greenhouse productivity, Skytree is using space station CO2 scrubbers
The startup is betting that direct air capture can be profitable by starting with niche markets.
The future is very much yet to be written about vertical farming. In many ways, the technology presents hope in the midst of rising food safety concerns, aging populations and…
Babylon raises $8M for its self-contained vertical farming system
Personal vertical farms — that’s the big promise driving Babylon Micro-Farms. The Richmond, Virginia-based startup produces the Galleri, a large $15,000 wall appliance designed to grow more than 50 different…
InnovaFeed nabs $250M to extend its vertical insect farms to the US
InnovaFeed, a vertical insect farm operator that’s rearing insects for animal and plant nutrition, has raised $250 million in a series D round of funding led by Qatar Investment Authority…
Spread eyes strawberries and alternative meat following Series A raise
Over the past decade and a half, Spread has become the most recognizable name in Japan’s vertical framing ecosystem. The Kyoto-based firm opened its first farm in 2007 and six…
Crop One, Emirate open ‘world’s largest vertical farm’ in Dubai
Passengers on Emirates and other airlines will be able to eat the leafy greens, which include lettuces, arugula, mixed salad greens and spinach on their flights starting this month.
When I wrote my big TC1 on Bowery Farming late last year, there was a lot of talk of the company’s third commercial farming site in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Today the…
The company behind the $50 strawberries is now selling berries for $20 a tray
Oishii made waves last year for its wildly expensive strawberries, fetching $50 for a box of eight to 11 berries. Based in the bastion of vertical farming that is Kearny,…
OnePointOne wants a piece of the vertically farmed strawberry market
Vertical farming has long done a very good job with a very thin sliver of the agricultural marketplace. Specifically, years of advancements in hydroponics and greenhouse farming have made it…
Bowery is selling vertically farmed strawberries in limited quantities
Every time someone moves to the East Coast, they invariably complain about the Mexican food. Understandably. It is, in a word, lacking. For me, however, it’s the strawberries. I’m from…
Another vertical farming operation revealed its plans to hit Nasdaq by way of SPAC. This week, Florida-based Kalera announced plans to merge with Agrico Acquisition Corp. in a deal that…
Upward plans to open a 250,000-square-foot vertical farm in PA early next year
Brooklyn-based Upward Farms this week unveiled plans to launch a massive 250,000-square-foot vertical farm. Set for an early-2023 opening, the site will be located in Northeastern Pennsylvania’s Luzerne County. It’s…
Vertical farming startup Infarm raises $200M for international expansion
Europe-based vertical farming firm Infarm this week announced a $200 million Series D. The round, led by the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), follows last year’s $170 million raise. It pushes…
Agrify aims to be the fastest-growing cannabis company
Agrify currently sells computer-controlled vertical farming units for cannabis. But that’s just the starting point for Agrify. The company is quickly going vertical itself, adding features and acquiring more companies…
Last week, TechCrunch ran my TC-1 about Bowery Farming. What began as a piece about a heartily financed New York startup ballooned into an exploration about an emerging field with…
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Bionic hydroponic
You’ll have to forgive me, I’ve been thinking a lot about farming — specifically what it might look like in the future. This is largely due to the recent publication of my Bowery Farming TC-1. It’s a 12,000-word feature that really took me down the vertical-farming rabbit hole. As I allude to in the piece,…
While dozens of vertical farms have sprouted in the past decade, few have attracted the amount of attention that New Jersey-based Bowery Farming enjoys.
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Bowery Farming is forcing us all to look up at the future of vertical agriculture
Food is the very nourishment of life, but it’s becoming increasingly challenging to grow at scale. A combination of explosive population growth, climate change and depleting sources of water is…
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Hacking lettuce for taste and profit
“The first thing you notice is just the smell,” chief science officer of Bowery Farming Henry Sztul says excitedly. “It’s got that smell, right?”
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Can LEDs ultimately replace the sun?
For Bowery Farming, no technology is too small to optimize, and no data is too insignificant to track. Combined together, the startup hopes to orchestrate the future of farming and build a moat.
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The voracious fight for your salad bowl
The size, the scope, the potential impact — the mind reels. Vertical farming may be a nascent space, but it is growing rapidly, and the greenfield is being taken quickly.
Roughly two hours pass between my initial email and our first Zoom chat — on a Sunday, no less. I skip the post-gym shower and pop on a baseball cap,…
AeroFarms is supplying the hops for Goose Island’s latest IPA
The world of vertical farming has seen a massive uptick in interest over the past decade, as the world grapples with concerns over resource use, farmable area and exploding population…
New York City-based vertical farming startup Bowery Farming this week has announced a $300 million Series C. The round, which brings its total funding north of $472 million, values the…
Nordetect’s system to monitor soil and water for indoor agriculture raises seed funding
As indoor farming expands, a number of new companies are cropping up to provide better data and monitoring tools for the businesses aimed at improving efficiencies and quality of indoor…
Plenty has raised over $500 million to grow fruits and veggies indoors
Plenty Unlimited has raised $140 million in new funding to build more vertical farms around the U.S. The new funding, which brings the company’s total cash haul to an abundant…
Agtech startup iFarm bags $4M to help vertical farms grow more tasty stuff
Vertical farming technology provider iFarm has bagged a $4 million seed round, led by Gagarin Capital, an earlier investor in the startup. Other investors in the round include Matrix Capital,…
