Hydroponics Startup Babylon Micro-Farms Raises $3m Seed Capital For US Expansion

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March 18, 2021

Lauren Manning

US indoor agriculture startup Babylon Micro-Farms has closed a $3 million seed round led by previous investors including the Center for Innovative Technology (CIT).

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New investors to take part in the fundraising included Hull Street Capital, VentureSouth, and CAV Angels – the University of Virginia‘s alumni angel investor group.

Babylon will use the capital to fund its nationwide expansion. It offers a cloud-based, plug-and-play hydroponics system for indoor farming operations.

The Richmond, Virginia-based startup claims that its 15 square-foot miniature farm can grow as much produce as 2,000 square-feet of outdoor cropland.

In January 2020, Babylon raised its initial seed investment of $2.3 million led by CIT’s early-stage investment group CIT GAP Funds and startup incubator Plug and Play Ventures.

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“2021 is on track to be a year of accelerating growth and major market penetration through national distribution as we continue to focus on deploying our indoor farming service,” Babylon CEO Alexander Olesen said in a statement.

“We’re enabling businesses and communities to grow their own fresh produce and demonstrating the benefits of our fleet of remotely managed vertical farms.”

Indoor farming startups have been bagging fundings left, right, and center of late. Babylon Micro-Farms is just one of the latest outfits to capture investors’ attention, along with the likes of New York’s Oishii, Germany’s Infarm, and recently SPACced Kentuckian player AppHarvest.

What makes Babylon unique — in its own estimation — is its “remotely managed,” easy-to-use growing platform. The technology could give aspiring or existing indoor growers a quick way to get into the game instead of building a new growing system from scratch, or having to learn the ropes through old-school, analog means, the startup suggests.

Babylon Micro-Farms’ machinery can squeeze into relatively smaller spaces compared to many other indoor ag solutions on the market. This may give users a foothold over larger operations by allowing them to enter the fray more quickly while bigger players are still shopping for real estate.

Through a two-year lease contract, Babylon users can dabble in the indoor farming craze without having to commit to a more long-term operation. This can also give flexibility when it comes to testing new markets.

“The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted a national food-supply system issue, putting the spotlight on a critical need for more locally-grown produce options. Babylon Micro-Farms has found their focus, and it is a reflection of their leadership team’s commitment to building a category-defining customer experience while making a positive impact,” Alex Euler, investment director at CIT GAP Funds, said in a statement.

“During a time when many people are experiencing isolation, being able to watch your own garden grow can improve one’s quality of life. The company’s innovative approach to developing a technology system that enables its own staff to remotely control the light, water, and nutrients for its farming systems is absolutely making them a leader in this space.

Is AppHarvest the Future of Farming?

Special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, are red-hot right now, with investors clamoring to get into promising young companies.

In this video from Motley Fool Live, recorded on Jan. 28, Industry Focus host Nick Sciple and Motley Fool contributor Lou Whiteman discuss AppHarvest, one such SPAC that is looking to disrupt the agriculture industry. Here are the details on what AppHarvest wants to do, and a look at whether the company represents the future of farming.

Nick Sciple: One last company I wanted to talk about, Lou, and this is one I think it's -- you pay attention to, but not one I'm super excited to run in and buy. It was a company called AppHarvest. It's coming public via a [SPAC] this year. This vertical farming space. We talked about Gladstone Land buying traditional farmland. AppHarvest is taking a very different approach, trying to lean into some of the ESG-type movements.

Lou Whiteman: Yeah. Let's look at this. It probably wouldn't surprise you that the U.S. is the biggest global farm exporter as we said, but it might surprise you that the Netherlands, the tiny little country, is No. 2. The way they do that is tech: Greenhouse farm structure. AppHarvest has taken that model and brought it to the U.S. They have, I believe, three farms in Appalachia. The pitches can produce 30x the yields using 90% less water. Right now, it's mostly tomatoes and it is early-stage. I don't own this stock either. I love this idea. There's some reasons that I'm not buying in right now that we can get into. But this is fascinating to me. We talked about making the world a better place. This is the company that we need to be successful to make the world a better place. The warning on it is that it is a SPAC. So it's not public yet. Right now, I believe N-O-V-S. That deal should close soon. [Editor's note: The deal has since closed.] I'm not the only one excited about it. I tend not to like to buy IPOs and new companies anyway. I think the caution around buying into the excitement applies here. There is a Martha Stewart video on their website talking up the company, which I love Martha Stewart, but that's a hype level that makes me want to just watch and see what they produce. This is just three little farms in Appalachia right now and a great idea. This was all over my watchlist. I would imagine I would love to hold it at some point, but just be careful because this is, as we saw SPACs last year in other areas, people are very excited about this.

Sciple: Yeah. I think, like we've said, for a lot of these companies, the prospects are great. I think when you look at the reduced water usage, better, environmentally friendly, all those sorts of things. I like that they are in Appalachia. As someone who is from the South, I like it when more rural areas get some people actually investing money there. But again, there's a lot of execution between now and really getting to a place where this is the future of farming and they're going to reach scale and all those sorts of things. But this is a company I'm definitely going to have my radar on and pay attention to as they continue to report earnings. Because you can tell yourself a story about how this type of vertical farming, indoor farming disrupts this traditional model, can be more efficient, cleaner, etc. Something to continue paying attention to as we have more information, because this company, like you said, Lou, isn't all the way public yet. We still got to have this SPAC deal finalized and then we get all our fun SEC filings and quarterly calls and all those sorts of things. Once we have that, I will be very much looking forward to seeing what the company has to say.

Whiteman: Right. Just to finish up along too, the interesting thing here is that it is a proven concept because it has worked elsewhere. The downside of that is that it needed to work there. Netherlands just doesn't have -- and this is an expensive proposition to get started, to get going. There's potential there, but in a country blessed with almost seemingly unlimited farmland for now, for long term it makes sense. But in the short term, it could be a hard thing to really get up and running. I think you're right, just one to watch.

Urban Home For High Tech Horticulture In Australia

RMCG has kicked off 2021 with a new project for the Australian horticulture industry, which aims to assess the potential of emerging production technology and its application in the urban landscape.
Vertical farms, aquaponics, floating farms – these are just some of the many possibilities of high technology horticulture in urban areas across the globe. But are they feasible for Australian growers?

RMCG is excited to lead a consortium in partnership with the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and global urban agriculture consultancy ugritecture to answer that very question. The six-month project, funded by Hort Innovation, will assess the potential of emerging production technology and its application in the Australian urban landscape, which will also cover regional areas and hubs.

High technology horticulture and emerging production technology can benefit Australian growers and industry by developing food production and delivery systems that have the potential to optimize yield, quality and supply. Examples of this technology include vertical farm systems, hydroponics, aquaponics, nearly fully automated production as well as rooftop, underground and floating farms.

Project approach
A feasibility study will be conducted to identify the opportunities and challenges for high technology horticulture in urban Australia. It will identify a range of high technology systems and assess their applicability to urban Australia by considering: regulation and planning, farm input and waste, supply chain logistics, and social, environmental, and economic aspects.

The project will include a high-level literature review and modeling of the social and environmental impacts. The economics of high technology systems for urban horticulture will also be analyzed.

The study is being guided by an industry-led reference group including growers and emerging commercial leaders engaged in urban high technology horticulture in Brisbane and Sydney, members of local city councils, and subject-matter experts in protected cropping.

The outcomes of the study will identify future priorities for research, development and extension activities and investment into Australian high technology horticulture in urban areas.

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For more information:
RMCG
www.rmcg.com.au 

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28 Jan 2021

CHAP Launches CropMonitor Pro – A New Digital Service For Predicting Crop Pest and Disease Risks

CHAP is delighted to announce the launch of a new digital service – Crop Monitor Pro. It is designed to help growers and agronomists predict the likelihood of pest and disease outbreaks on their farm.

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CropMonitor Pro extends the DEFRA funded, long-standing regional risk evaluation service (Crop Monitor) which was first launched in 2003 by Fera Science Limited (Fera). CropMonitor Pro is a significant advancement on that service by providing field-level risk prediction for a range of pests and diseases affecting winter wheat, winter oilseed rape, and potatoes.

The CropMonitor Pro decision support service is a collaboration between CHAP and Fera and has been in development since 2017. It has been funded by IUK as part of the UK Agri-tech Strategy.

Analytical tools are becoming increasingly popular for growers. Retailers, agrochemical companies, and government are all looking to better predict the risk of pest and disease outbreaks to mitigate against supply chain shortages, predict sales, and encourage environmental stewardship. For the grower, a better understanding of the level of pest and disease risk can ensure pesticides are only applied when required. This will not only offer immediate savings on both chemical applications and operational expenditure but will also reduce the threat of resistance against an increasingly limited arsenal of available crop protection products.

CropMonitor Pro estimates infection risk by analyzing the complex relationship between weather, crop growth stage, management practices, and disease or pest characteristics. It uses a simple traffic light system to show crop susceptibility and suggests optimum times to spray – and when to avoid spraying – for up to four days ahead with up to 85% accuracy.

The system benefits from almost 20 years of historical winter wheat disease data: models which could be validated against this dataset were shown to have a false negative rate of less than 15%. CHAP CEO Fraser Black said: “Developing tools to support the sustainable use of pesticides is critical not only to improve the bottom line of our growers but also to protect our environment and halt the rapid rise of pesticide resistance emerging in the UK. CropMonitor Pro will deliver real financial benefits to growers and agronomists while also protecting the environment.”

Fera CEO Dr. Andrew Swift said: “After several years of development work, we are excited to launch the CropMonitor Pro service with CHAP. It is our hope that CropMonitor Pro becomes a vital tool for the industry to improve profitability while helping to protect our natural ecosystems.”

The system launched on 14th September for growers and agronomists and will be available directly through www.cropmonitor.co.uk on a subscription basis.* 

About Crop Health and Protection (CHAP)

Crop Health and Protection (CHAP), funded by Innovate UK, is one of four UK Agri-Tech Centres. CHAP’s vision is for the UK to be a global leader in the development of applied Agri-Technologies, to help secure our future by nourishing a growing population sustainably while delivering economic, environmental, and health benefits to society.

CHAP acts as a unique, independent nexus between the UK government, researchers, and industry, building innovation networks to identify and accelerate the development of cutting-edge solutions to drive incremental, transformative, and disruptive changes in sustainable crop productivity.

Website: chap-solutions.co.uk/

For further information about the project contact:
Chris Delf: chris.delf@chap-solutions.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0)7732 684 786

Twitter: @CHAP_Enquiries

Fera Science Limited, formerly the Food and Environment Research Agency, is a joint private/public sector venture between Capita plc and Defra. Using original thinking applied to support sustainable global food security our vision is to support our partners to respond to the challenges ahead through original thinking and world-class science. Fera is a leading supplier of scientific solutions, evidence, and advice across the agri-food supply chain. Employing more than 350 scientists, Fera analyses over 90,000 samples and publishes over 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers per year. It turns expertise and innovation into ways to support and develop a sustainable food chain, a healthy natural environment, and to protect the global community from biological and chemical risks.

Website: fera.co.uk

For further information about the project contact:

Judith Turner: Judith.turner@fera.co.uk

Tel: +44 (0)1904 462200 

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Indoor Farming Is Revolutionizing The Food Chain

Does eating salad really contribute to a healthy lifestyle? Not when 5.6 billion pounds of pesticides are used worldwide to produce fresh greens. According to the World Health Organization, residues from those pesticides are linked to cancer and other serious health problems. In an endeavor to ensure citizens’ health, the vertical farming company &ever is committed to sustainably grow pesticides-free green products.

Vertical farms – the future of agriculture

&ever (formerly Farmers Cut), is a Hamburg-based farming company, which cultivates high-quality plants indoors while saving on natural resources. The farms have a vertical structure and are easily scalable in form and size, which allows them to be run in any climate conditions in any location around the globe. 

For &ever, it is all about the freshness and nutritional value of the food. Mark Korzilius, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of &ever, says that green leaves can lose most of their nutritional value after being washed in chlorine, chilled, packed, stored in warehouses over longer periods of time and then sent on the road for transportation. &ever solves that problem and provides citizens with fresh products by using the so called ‘harvest on demand’ or ‘farm to fork’ model, which leaves the roots intact even when the produce reaches the customer.

The newly opened farm in Kuwait

The first commercial &ever farm is the newly opened vertical indoor farm in Kuwait City. The facility will soon produce fresh salad all-year-round in the middle of the Kuwaiti desert. The farm can grow up to 550 kilos of fresh greens and herbs a day and has faster growth cycles than traditional outdoor farms, which are dependent on the weather conditions.

&ever’s indoor farms are also fostering new cultivation technologies. “We have invented the system ‘dryponics’, which is a unique method of growing salad indoors,” said Dr. Henner Schwarz, Co-CEO of &ever. Did you know that even food labeled as ‘organic’ can contain a lot of different pesticides? &ever’s project engineer in Kuwait Rami Safareni says that their products are “better than organic,” because the company can produce over 250 different types of plants using:

• 90 percent less water

• 60 percent less fertilizer

• zero pesticides

Thanks to the controlled atmosphere in the farm, the fresh greens don’t require washing and are harvested immediately before they are eaten, ensuring high nutritional quality. To demonstrate the purity of the plants, Korzilius and his team, taste the salad directly from the growing trays. “

It is a common misconception that plants come from the field,” Korzilius explained, pointing out that nowadays plants are mostly grown in greenhouses. Using these growing techniques, &ever is transforming metropolises like Kuwait City into farms and allowing citizens to taste green salad as if they had just harvested it from their own garden.

Farm to Fork

Kuwait’s unique fusion of local flavors and international dishes make it one of the most interesting food scenes worldwide. The first restaurant chain in Kuwait to benefit from the fresh green products will be the local Japanese restaurant Ora, owned by NOX Management. Faisal AlMeshal, Managing Director at NOX, points out that for the first time the restaurants will be supplied locally.

“We used to import all our greens mainly from Europe, but now we have a local solution that is tastier and fresher,” said AlMeshal. “The local supply saves money on logistics, minimizes waste and makes better choices for the planet.”

The technology behind it

Advanced technology provides &ever’s vertical farms with fully digital control over the whole production process. “Our production planning is based entirely on SAP Business Technology Platform, which allows us to optimize production according to the needs and capacities of the farm,” said Dr. Jan-Gerd Frerichs, Chief Technology Officer at &ever.

IoT sensors and edge computing devices are collecting data at several hundred data points throughout the farmhouse – monitoring seeding and germination, as well as crucial parameters such as carbon dioxide levels, temperature, humidity and airflow. To support the project with software implementation and development, &ever chose IBsolution — a trusted SAP strategic partner.

“We have contributed to &ever's goals by delivering innovative solutions on the SAP cloud platform to make their farmhouses being manageable with few people at maximum utilization,” said Loren Heilig, managing director at IBsolution. “It is great to see the first results of our partnership here in Kuwait.”

Data collected from the IoT sensors is stored within SAP’s in-memory database SAP HANA and analyzed with the help of SAP Cloud Platform logistics and production applications.

Building on the success of the Kuwait project, &ever is planning to open more sustainable farms in cities with unfavorable climate conditions throughout Africa and Asia. Nutritional food for millions of people, zero waste and minimizing ecological footprint is what the agricultural company is striving for.

To learn more about &ever, listen to below podcast.

By Nona Kichukova, SAP | Forbes | May 6, 2020