Berlin-based urban farming startup Infarm has secured a $25 million Series A funding round led by Balderton Capital.
New and previous backers Triple Point Capital, Mons Investments, Cherry Ventures, QUADIA, and LocalGlobe all participated in the round.
Infarm builds in-store farming units and software to manage the growth of crops. It currently has more than 50 farms running around Berlin in supermarkets, restaurants, and warehouses. The startup has placed its farm in German supermarket chains METRO and EDEKA.
“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,” said CEO Erez Galonska. “Instead of building large-scale farms outside of the city, optimising on a specific yield, and then distributing the produce, we decided it would be more effective to distribute the farms themselves and farm directly where people live and eat.”
The startup claims that one of its farm units can have an output of 1,200 plants a month. The farms are managed by Infarm’s own platform for monitoring thousands of different data points and personalising the farm to respective needs.
“Each farm acts as a data pipeline, sending information on plant growth to our platform 24/7 allowing it to learn, adjust, and optimise,” said CTO Guy Galonska.
With its new funds, the company plans to further its Berlin-based R&D centre and launch operations in more German cities as well as Paris, London, and Copenhagen and eventually the US.
“This is the beginning of the urban farming (r)evolution: it will redefine what it means to eat well, reshape the landscape of cities, and re-empower the people to take ownership of their food,” said Erez.
The company previously received a €2 million grant from the EU’s Horizon 2020.
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