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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Farm.One

Farm.One Launches a New Vertical Farming Facility in Brooklyn

NYC-based indoor ag company Farm.One cut the ribbon on its new urban vertical farm recently, this one located in Brooklyn, New York. According to the Brooklyn Reader, the 10,000-square-foot facility and will start planting seeds in the coming weeks. The Brooklyn farm is the company’s second large-scale farm, following its existing one in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood.

Farm.One started out supplying its vertically grown greens to New York City’s high-end restaurant scene. The original goal was to grow rare, unusual plants restaurant chefs could then use in their dishes, a plan that worked until the COVID-19 pandemic started shutting down restaurants last year. 

In response, Farm.One took the same direct-to-consumer route many companies shifted to in 2020. NYC-based consumers can now sign up for a Farm.One subscription and receive greens and a few other local goods delivered to their doorsteps. The company has also teamed up with Brooklyn-based indoor farming company Smallhold to sell “local luxury mushrooms.” An additional collaborations with Rawsome Treats provides smoothies and plant-based bottled milks. Farm.One uses bikes for all deliveries and packages all items in reusable containers the company retrieves once they are empty. The shift to this model proved so popular that there is currently a waitlist to even get products. 

Hence the new farm space in Brooklyn’s Prospect Heights neighborhood, which opened at the end of last week. The space will grow various microgreens as well as herbs and some flowers. All crops are grown using the hydroponic method and artificial lighting, with plants harvested “hours before delivery,” according to the company. 

The Brooklyn farm will also include an event space where attendees can sample plants on “tasting tours” and attend lectures on food and agriculture. In future there may also be a daytime cafe as well as a cocktail menu.

Farm.One also licenses its technology out and currently has locations at the EATALY NYC Flatiron location and a Whole Foods in Manhattan. 

All of these offerings would classify as premium, targeting higher-end consumers. It remains to be seen if Farm.One’s demographic reach will widen as it adds more farms and is able to serve more parts of NYC and beyond. 

InFarm Raises $170M to Expand Its Vertical Farming Network

Berlin, Germany-based vertical farming company InFarm announced today it has raised $170 million in the first close of its Series C round, bringing its total funding so far to $304.5 million.

The investment round, a mix of equity and debt financing, was led by LGT Lightstone with participation from Hanaco, Bonnier, Haniel, and Latitude, as well as existing investors Atomico, TriplePoint Capital, Mons Capital and Astanor Ventures. InFarm said in today’s press release that it expects the Series C round to eventually reach $200 million.

InFarm has built its reputation, not to mention its coffers, on the idea of getting fresh, local greens to more cities around the world via its network of high-tech vertical farms. The farms are smallish, pod-like devices that can live in grocery stores, restaurants, and food distribution centers. The farms use hydroponics and cloud-based software to grow leafy greens in completely controlled environments. A big benefit with InFarms’ approach is that, since farms are placed inside grocery stores, greens can be harvested onsite and sold without having to travel. 

Sourcing greens close to the store is becoming more commonplace as companies develop smaller vertical farms. While InFarm might be the most high-profile player in this area of vertical farming, it isn’t the only company bringing greens literally to market. Farm.One just installed its own mini-vertical farm at a Whole Foods in Manhattan and has plans to expand to other stores soon. Vertical Field launched a geoponic vertical farm at New York’s famed Evergreen market in August. Brooklyn-based Square Roots puts a slightly different twist on the concept by placing its shipping container farms next to food distribution centers. The company currently has a partnership with North American distributor Gordon Food Service.

All of which is to say, InFarm may be leading the farm-in-a-grocery-store movement, but it won’t be the only company grabbing major investment dollars for long.

InFarm raised $100 million in June of 2019. Since then, it has struck deals with major grocery retailers around the world, including  Aldi Süd in Germany, Kroger in the U.S., Empire in Canada, and Kinokuniya in Japan, among other places. The company said today it expects its farming network to total more than 5 million square feet by 2025, making it the largest distributed farming network in the world. 

To do that, the company will expand to new cities in future. The new investment capital will go towards that goal. InFarm will also use some of it to complete development on a next-gen version of its farm. 

Farm.One Installs Its Mini-Vertical Farm at Whole Foods in Manhattan

NYC-based vertical farming company Farm.One announced today it has launched a mini-farm inside the newly opened Whole Foods Market in Manhattan West. 

Farm.One custom designed the farm for this location. From a visual standpoint, that means the design matches the Whole Foods’ look, while the physical footprint — 36 square feet — does not intrude on shopping space. The farm can hold 150 plants, which it grows using artificial lighting and the hydroponic method. 

It being a mini-farm, there isn’t a ton of variety in the crops grown. In fact, for now, the mini-farm grows only basil, which will be used for in-store pizzas and cocktails. Which sounds about right for a Whole Foods in Manhattan. Today’s press release says the farm will grow about eight pounds of basil each month. Whole Foods’ staff will harvest the plants and, thanks to the accompanying software platform, require little supervision from Farm.One engineers.

Farm.One operates other custom locations at EATALY in Manhattan’s Flatiron neighborhood and at the Project Farmhouse event space. The company will also unveil a new farm in a yet-to-be-named plant-based restaurant in October. Thus far, the company has raised nearly $500,000 in funding.

While growing cocktail garnishes won’t exactly end world hunger, Farm.One’s continued growth across Manhattan shows how varied the uses for vertical farming are getting. Not so long ago, the concept was the territory of large-scale operations in warehouse-style buildings on the outskirts of cities. Now, vertical farms have made their way into schools, restaurants, grocery stores, grocery distribution centers, and, increasingly, consumers’ homes. The more use cases we can see in action, the better we can understand where vertical farming is most valuable as a component of our future food system.

Farm.One has plans to build other mini-farms as well as flagship locations in other major U.S. cities as well as expand internationally over the next couple of years.