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Berlin Urban Farm-In-A-Box Raises $25 Million For European Expansion
The company, founded by three Israeli filmmakers-turned-entrepreneurs, plans to use the funds to roll out mini, in-store farms with Edeka, Germany’s largest supermarket chain. It is also working with Metro (B4B.DE), the country’s No.2 grocer.
Berlin Urban Farm-In-A-Box Raises $25 Million For European Expansion
February 5, 2018 Eric Auchard
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Berlin-based urban farming start-up Infarm has raised $25 million to expand its indoor growing system - a soil-less technology better known for furtively growing marijuana - into major supermarket chains and restaurants across Europe.
The company, founded by three Israeli filmmakers-turned-entrepreneurs, plans to use the funds to roll out mini, in-store farms with Edeka, Germany’s largest supermarket chain. It is also working with Metro (B4B.DE), the country’s No.2 grocer.
Infarm wants to help cities become self-sufficient in food production, lowering farming’s environmental footprint.
A single, two-square-meter unit can be located in stores or dining rooms, or the same units can be chained together in central distribution centers to grow hundreds of different varieties of plants, each with its own micro-climate.
“We decided it would be more effective to distribute the farms themselves and farm directly where people live and eat,” Co-Founder and Chief Executive Erez Galonska said.
Industrial-scale U.S. rivals claim to be removing waste from long-distance agricultural supply chains, while Infarm is trying to break down the need for a supply chain itself, Osnat Michaeli, another co-founder, and Infarm’s chief marketing officer told Reuters.
Plenty Inc of South San Francisco, which operates vast indoor fields growing fruit, vegetables and herbs, raised $200 million in a 2017 round led by Softbank (9984.T) Vision Fund, marking the largest-ever agricultural tech venture funding.
Infarm said it will have 1,000 miniature urban farms operating across Europe by the middle of next year, starting with locations in Paris, London, Copenhagen and additional German cities by the end of 2018.
The compact plant growing system sits on stacked shelves, using hydroponics - a way of growing plants without soil - in a climate and LED-lighting controlled glass case. It grows everyday and exotic herbs like small-leaf Greek basil or Peruvian mint and leafy greens which customers are selling for prices at or below that of plastic-packaged herbs.
“We have replaced 15 grams of herbs in plastic boxes with living plants priced around 1.50 euros,” said Michaeli. “It’s the same type, similar price, but it’s alive.”
The new round of investment was led by Balderton Capital, one of Europe’s top early-stage venture investors, and joined by debt-financing firm Triple Point Capital and Mons Investments.
The company plans to invest further in its Berlin-based urban farm and research lab to expand its product catalog beyond some 200 herbs currently to include tomatoes, chillies, mushrooms, fruits and flowering vegetables, the company said.
Reporting by Eric Auchard; Editing by Kirsten Donovan
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Infarm Grows Produce In Supermarket Aisles
Infarm Grows Produce In Supermarket Aisles
There are more than 50 indoor vertical farms in Berlin alone
KEN SCHUCHTMANN
James Hurley
February 5, 2018, The Times
Retailers can earn brownie points with environmentally and ethically minded consumers already by boasting about selling local produce, but what if supermarkets could go one better and grow their own crops in-store?
It might sound fanciful, but some of Europe’s leading venture capitalists have invested $25 million in a start-up that produces vertical indoor “farms” that can be located in everything from supermarket aisles to restaurant kitchens, schools and distribution warehouses.
Infarm already operates more than 50 farms across Berlin and says that 1,000 units will be operational by 2019, including about 200 farms in London.
Erez Galonska, co-founder and chief executive of Infarm, said: “Rather than asking ourselves how to fix the deficiencies in the current supply chain, we wanted to redesign the entire chain from start to finish. We decided it would be more effective to farm directly where people live and eat.”
Infarm installations can be found in Edeka and Metro stores in Germany, two of the country’s largest grocers, with herbs and leafy greens being cultivated.
The company says that a single farm unit of two square metres can produce 1,200 plants per month and that some stores have become self-sufficient in herb production.
The plants are fed and nurtured by an internet-controlled system that uses sensors to monitor light, temperature, acidity, and nutrients for each crop.
Guy Galonska, co-founder of Infarm, said: “We collect 50,000 data points throughout a plant’s lifetime. Each farm acts as a data pipeline, sending information on plant growth to our platform, allowing it to learn, adjust, and optimise.” Thus different varieties of crops can be adapted for different supermarket locations to suit customer tastes.
Infarm was founded in 2013 by the Galonska brothers and Osnat Michaeli. Its vertical farms use “hydroponics”, a system that grows plants in oxygen and nutrient-enriched water instead of soil.
Osnat Michaeli, Erez Galonska and Guy Galonska have big plans
Erez Galonska said: “Our ambition is to reach cities as far as Seattle in the United States or Seoul, South Korea.”
The funding round was led by Balderton Capital, the London-based venture capital firm. The investment will help to pay for the planned international expansion.
Daniel Waterhouse, a partner at Balderton, said: “Urban living is growing unrelentingly across the world and societies are at a point where they have to confront big existential questions, such as how to feed their growing populations sustainably.
“ Infarm is right at the forefront of a new wave of companies setting out to tackle the inefficiencies in the food supply chain by making it possible to grow fresh produce right in the heart of our communities.”
Global Expansion Tipped For ‘Breakthrough’ Indoor Farming Venture
80 Acres Farms regards itself as a supply chain disruptor; choosing to focus on delivering high quality produce without the food miles by converting indoor urban spaces into ultra-efficient controlled environment agriculture (CEA) farms.
Global Expansion Tipped For ‘Breakthrough’ Indoor Farming Venture
by Gill McShane
30 January 2018
Samantha Bergman shows 80 Acres Farms' freshly picked lettuce at high-end U.S. retailer Dorothy Lane Market in Dayton, Ohio.
80 Acres Farms' shelf space at Clifton Market in Cincinnati, Ohio, which is just 2.4 miles from the company's farm.
Setting its sights on going global in the future, progressive indoor farming business 80 Acres Farms is about to launch on the mainstream U.S. market with a 12-month offer of locally-grown micro-greens, culinary herbs, leafy greens, tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers that have been bred, grown and harvested for nutrition and taste, rather than transportation. PBUK speaks with co-founders Mike Zelkind and Tisha Livingston, and their first major investor, Shawn Harris from start-up facilitator Orange Wings in the Netherlands.
80 Acres Farms regards itself as a supply chain disruptor; choosing to focus on delivering high quality produce without the food miles by converting indoor urban spaces into ultra-efficient controlled environment agriculture (CEA) farms.
Since its creation in late 2015, the company has worked tirelessly with major U.S. universities and Dutch technology company Priva to fine-tune its hydroponic growing systems. At a time when they saw other indoor growers facing challenges, 80 Acres Farms believes it has made phenomenal progress and is approaching a major breakthrough.
“This is the first real proven indoor farming business that is on the verge of getting the process completely right,” claims Harris. “We can now confidently say that we will be part of this game-changing trend to deliver fresh, healthy produce from around the corner.”
Harris invested in 80 Acres Farms in 2016 and sits on the board of directors. She set up her start-up accelerator Orange Wings after stepping down late last year as chief executive of another firm she founded – Nature’s Pride, Europe’s biggest exotic fruit and vegetable importer.
Having developed four urban indoor production sites with experienced growers in Ohio, Alabama, Arkansas and North Carolina, 80 Acres Farms has been selling its produce commercially for almost a year. In the last few months, Harris says the business has secured early commitments from some highly respected retailers and one of the biggest foodservice companies in the United States.
Using local depots, each production site will pick its produce at the peak stage of ripeness to deliver daily to local restaurants and various regional and national retailers located within 100 miles. Further details have yet to be disclosed.
Ultimately, 80 Acres Farms aims to deliver its accessible, nutritious, tasty and affordable local food concept to other parts of the world, particularly areas that are unable to either produce outdoors or in conventional greenhouses for 12 months of the year.
Disrupting the supply chain
According to company CEO Zelkind, the key factor that sets the business apart from others is the indoor status of its farms and its product mix, added to the fact that the team not only has food industry experience but has run food companies on a commercial scale.
Importantly, Zelkind says 80 Acres has built an indoor system that grows affordable produce all year round under a completely controlled environment.
“It’s the next generation of controlled environment agriculture,” he claims. “80 Acres grows products much faster than in the traditional outdoor environment or even in a greenhouse environment. We can control all the factors, like CO2 levels, and when and how much to deliberately stress the plant to get the right level of nutrition and flavour.”
Co-founders Zelkind and Livingston have spent decades running companies in the food industry. Before 80 Acres Farms, Zelkind was president and chief executive officer of Sager Creek Vegetable Company when it was a division of Del Monte Foods Inc., San Francisco, while Livingston was chief operating officer at the same firm.
In establishing 80 Acres Farms, the duo says they are bringing back the “backyard fresh taste” of produce to many communities around the United States all year-round.
Livingston points out that currently fresh produce often travels long distances.
“Because of these distances traveled, our food is now being bred, grown and harvested for transportation rather than nutrition and taste,” adds Zelkind. “80 Acres Farms drastically disrupts current produce supply chains.”
Indeed, being local to its customers in four U.S. states means 80 Acres Farms can pick produce when it’s ripe, and plant varieties that are bred for flavor and yield, rather than transportation and survival in an unpredictable environment.
“This is a huge differentiating point,” Livingston says. “We can deliver ‘just-picked’ quality produce to a retailer or restaurant year-round. We have partnered with and continue to partner with commercial and research institutions to gather nutritional information and to grow produce that has much more nutritional value.”
Thanks to the proximity to customers, Zelkind claims the products offered by 80 Acres Farms are also “more nutritious than most organics”. “We view ourselves as the next generation of organics,” he explains. “We don’t use pesticides – organic does.
“We are considering getting an organic certification but at this point, we are better than organic. We abide by most organic practices but we go way beyond what organic does. We are closer to the customer and we offer fresher products.”
Already, Zelkind explains that the first chef and consumer feedback is about how the produce offered by 80 Acres Farms is much tastier and fresh.
“I have visited stores with Mike and Tisha and I have heard customers talk about their experience with the products and the taste difference, which is why they keep coming back – it just makes you feel good,” Harris explains.
As such, Zelkind and Livingston believe the company’s target consumer market is wide open to anyone who likes high quality, fresh, tasty and pesticide-free produce, whether that be millennials or baby boomers.
Expansion plans
From its headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio, 80 Acres Farms now plans to build many more sites across the US, while aiming to expand globally. Each individual farm will deliver a product mix driven by the needs of local customers. On top of that, the company is building its biggest farm that will use 100% renewable energy when completed.
“80 Acres has very ambitious goals, but there is a lot to prove before that kind of expansion is warranted,” Zelkind notes. “We believe in keeping our heads in the clouds and feet firmly planted in the mud!”
For now, that means scaling with its customer base and striving to delight its growing consumer base. To that end, 80 Acres Farms has an exciting R&D product portfolio in the pipeline that includes root crops, which will complement its current range of micro-greens, culinary herbs, leafy greens and vine crops such as tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and hops.
“No one has yet figured out how to grow vine crops profitably indoors, in a completely controlled environment,” Zelkind comments. “We are the first and only ones in the world doing it so far but we can do it better. That’s the most exciting part. That’s the challenge for the next few years.”
Of course, one of the drawbacks of indoor farming is that it isn’t possible yet to economically grow all fruits and vegetables. “You won’t be able to do so for a long time to come,” admits Zelkind. “But there is no intention to replace traditional farmers. 80 Acres wants to work with these farmers and supplement what they can grow locally.”
Getting the process right
While the concept of indoor agriculture is logical and straightforward when broken into its subunits, Zelkind says bringing together all the components is not simple.
Firstly, to achieve the optimal growing environment you need multi-disciplined engineering, an understanding of plant science, and good farming experience. Then to grow crops profitably you must be able to understand manufacturing practices, automation and how to scale production.
Once you have that, you need the ability to brand and sell your products in a crowded marketplace. Plus, to run and build the business, you need the right people with the right experience. To set up the farms in the first place also requires a great deal of capital investment.
So, starting in late 2015 with a small R&D facility, 80 Acres Farms teamed up with international academics and scientists to figure out how to grow high quality plants with the right nutrition and flavour levels in the most effective way.
Since then, the company has developed a strong in-house engineering team and a large pool of data analysts who manage a production system guided by various sensors and other technologies to understand and optimise plant growth and development.
Following much trial and error, 80 Acres Farms is now on the fourth iteration of its production systems, which are installed across its current production sites in four states of the US. From here on, the company remains committed to driving the industry forward.
“This is a new industry and we all have so much to learn,” concludes Zelkind.
What is Controlled Environment Agriculture?
Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) is designed to optimise the growing conditions for food and aquatic production in an enclosed area, such as a greenhouse or building.
By controlling variables, such as: light, carbon dioxide, temperature, humidity, water, nutrients and pH levels, plants receive the correct amounts of water and nutrients, which often results in greater yields, all year-round. Production technologies include: hydroponics, aquaculture and aquaponics.
CEA operations can vary from fully-automated glasshouses with computer controls for watering, lighting and ventilation, to low-tech facilities that use cloches or plastic film to cover rows of field-grown crops, or basic plastic-covered tunnels.
CEA focuses on raising efficiency and maximising resources, including: space, water, energy, labour and capital. Given its nature, CEA also reduces the incidences of pest and disease, and allows the grower to recycle inputs like water or nutrients.
80 Acres Farms has developed a CEA system for urban indoor buildings where it claims the growing environment is completely controlled and guided by sophisticated technology. The company uses hydroponic technology to locally produce year-round and pesticide-free commercial volumes of micro-greens, culinary herbs and leafy greens, as well as vine crops, such as tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and hops.
Urban Farming 2.0
Delhaize, the leading retailer in Belgium, has launched a vegetable garden and greenhouse on the rooftop of one of its stores in the Brussels area. The produce will be sold in-store and offer customers an opportunity to buy locally.
Urban Farming 2.0
Jade Perry, 20 November 2017
Supermarkets are finding new ways to show their commitment to locally-grown food.
Delhaize, the leading retailer in Belgium, has launched a vegetable garden and greenhouse on the rooftop of one of its stores in the Brussels area. The produce will be sold in-store and offer customers an opportunity to buy locally. Five kinds of lettuce are currently being grown and tomatoes, eggplants, and zucchini will be added next year. The farm will also serve an educational purpose, offering workshops to schools in 2018.
While urban farming has been discussed in the past, major supermarkets are now making these conceptual ideas a reality. There is a range of benefits to these kinds of farms. Indoor farming can give consumers access to fresh produce year-round—even those who live in dense, urban areas. In addition to greatly reducing carbon emissions, indoor farming also uses less water than traditional farming and doesn’t require pesticides.
“Developing a healthy and high-quality nutritional pattern…is one of the challenges of the Brussels region,” Brussels Minster for Environment and Energy Céline Fremault stated in a release. “This first city farm of Delhaize is therefore an excellent initiative, which fully fits into one of Brussels’ ambitions: to increase local production.”
Shoppers at the Living Herb Garden. © studiomfd
Earlier this year, French retailer Carrefour revealed a similar rooftop initiative to Delhaize which is managed by students of a local agricultural school. Albert Heijn, the largest supermarket chain in the Netherlands, similarly launched a “Help-yourself Herb Garden” in one of its shops that allowed customers to pick fresh plants. Meanwhile in Canada, IGA became the first store to sell store-grown produce in Montreal, offering 30 varieties of vegetables. Even Target in the US is piloting vertical gardens in its stores.
Infarm, a Berlin-based start-up, is trying to make this a reality for every supermarket. The company created an indoor “herb garden” for supermarkets which houses plants in a protected, nutrient-rich environment. The customer-facing farm connects to an app that monitors important factors such as pH levels and temperature.
“Behind our farms is a robust hardware and software platform for precision farming,” Infarm co-founder Osnat Michaeli tells TechCrunch. “Each farming unit is its own individual ecosystem, creating the exact environment our plants need to flourish.” Los Angeles-based start-up Local Roots has taken a similar approach, using shipping containers to bring urban farms to grocers, universities, and community centres. Their goal is to create a network of community-based farms across the US.
Local Roots at SXSW.
Ethically-minded consumers are becoming more health conscious and starting to question where their food comes from and the effect it has on the environment. It’s imperative that brands respond to this concern and continue to implement initiatives that reduce emissions. Brands that are creative in reducing their carbon footprint will reduce costs, tackle climate change and ultimately attract more consumers looking for fresh, high-quality food.
Main image: © studiomfd