This UVA-Born Startup Is Revolutionizing The Home Farming Industry
December 23, 2019
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Imagine a world where you can grow your own produce right in your kitchen. That world might be closer than we think.
Alexander Olesen, CEO of Babylon Micro-Farms, and his business partner Graham Smith, CTO, started exploring hydroponics in 2016 while in school at the University of Virginia in terms of its hypothetical applications to grow crops in refugee camps.
“We realized that this was an incredibly efficient way of growing crops,” Olesen said.
Upon researching into how large commercial greenhouses use this technology, Olesen and Smith began looking into how it could be used on a smaller scale. While the technology never made it into refugee camps, they started looking into practical applications in their community and researching the minimum square foot of farming space needed to feed one person, feed a family or sustain a business.
Image courtesy of Babylon Micro-Farms.
When they realized those measurements could fit into a home or business, the idea of the small vertical farming modules utilizing unique hydroponics technology that Babylon Micro-Farms creates today was born.
Named for the famed ancient Hanging Gardens, Babylon Micro-Farms produces self-contained vertical farming units that can easily fit into a home or business. The company sends weekly “meal-prep style” subscription packages of produce kits and remotely manages the units, including the airflow, irrigation, sunlight-mimicking grow lights, fertilizer mixes and pH for the acidity of the water. Customers lease the farming space on a 24-month contract, which includes an all-inclusive monthly fee.
“We’ve essentially automated the need for a green thumb,” Olesen said.
The company just this year finalized a $2.4 million seed round of fundraising from investors including CIT GAP Funds and Plug and Play Ventures, following a $600,000 pre-seed round in 2018. Additionally, Babylon received a $25,000 grant to continue their research this year from the National Science Foundation.
Grown out of UVA, the company is still based in Charlottesville but hopes to begin expanding its operations into Richmond soon. The company is focusing on building their core market in Virginia and expects to see the growth of customers in commercial food service and corporate dining.
While Olesen and Smith have ambitions to bring their farming units into the household, the business currently targets clients in industries such as institutional food service and restaurants, higher education and corporate dining. Babylon’s products are already in use at companies including Dominion Energy, Commonwealth Senior Living, and Hampton Roads Academy, to name a few.
Currently, the company has 14 employees with a heavy emphasis on software and mechanical engineering, developing their patented software platform, app, hardware product, and weekly subscriptions.
Olesen believes this is just the beginning of a booming industry, similar to the way in which solar panels have become popular for use even on residential homes.
“We’re in the infancy of an industry for fresh produce or herbs,” Olesen said. “Vertical farming is going to disrupt that industry and become the status quo given how inefficient things are today. We see what we’re doing as a sustainable infrastructure play that is going to become a necessity.”
Image courtesy of Babylon Micro-Farms