Big up for city farming! UrbanFarmers, a Zurich based company providing farming solutions for urban areas, announced the successful completion of a 2.1m Series A round on March 31. The company says its as a ‘global pioneer’ in Aquaponic Rooftop farming — yes, that’s what it sounds like, fish, in a vegetable garden… on a roof! (Snazzy video here.)
Investment in indoor farming has soared recently, and UrbanFarmers, which develops and builds urban agriculture systems with fish and plants for commercial growers and food retailers, is seeing the benefits.
UrbanFarmers boasts the ability to develop and finance commercial food production systems in cities. Operationally speaking, the company points to its proprietary operating platform that can maintain and operate large-scale indoor aquaponic farming systems, or, for the layman: farming fish to fertilize plants which grow in the water in which the fish swim, and in turn, purifying it. Neat system.
“Raising a Series A is a tough entrepreneurial challenge, and I am glad we have reached a critical milestone and came closer to crossing the ‘valley of death’ of a tech start-up,” said Roman Gaus, CEO of UrbanFarmers AG. “With this new funding, we can now fast-track our international farm development projects, build strong internal capabilities to engineer, procure and contract rooftop farms and invest strategically into our IP and operating technology. We will also strategically invest into the UF brand to provide a strong price umbrella for our produce. Our goal is to scale urban farming on a global basis with a profitable business case has come a step closer.”
New investors include Eckenstein-Geigy-Stiftung in Binningen, Switzerland, and Walden Woods Holdings LLC from Boston, USA.
“We believe UrbanFarmers is the ideal impact investment combining a strong business model with our sustainability criteria,” said Mr. Gabriel Eckenstein principal investor being the foundation. “We want to provide growth capital where it helps accelerate robust business opportunities and sustainable solutions for a healthier planet and the next generation.”
Mr. Echenstein will join will also join the UF board of directors.
“In the U.S., urban farming has already met strong consumer demand and clearly addresses major market challenges in the fresh produce supply chain, such as high transportation cost, product shrinkage and waste,” adds Brett Hershey, principal investor of Walden Woods Holdings LLC. It’s evident that UrbanFarmers is at the forefront of a global trend that will change the way we grow food in the city and excite consumers with a new ultra-fresh product experience.”
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Photo Courtesy of UrbanFarmers.
