Brief: Infarm launches modular growing & distribution center to expand footprint faster

• German vertical farming startup Infarm has unveiled its high-capacity modular Growing Center, which can produce the equivalent of up to 10,000 square meters of farmland, according to the company.
• The Growing Centre consists of modular vertical farming units between 10-meters and 18-meters high with a 25-square-meter footprint along with a distribution hub. It takes six weeks to construct.
• Infarm is already planning or constructing 15 Infarm Growing Centres in major cities including London, Paris, Copenhagen, Toronto, Vancouver, Seattle, and Tokyo.

Why it matters:

The indoor farming industry has garnered attention recently as investors respond to a variety of drivers, including Covid-19’s impact on consumer demand. Although this dynamic brings more capital to the table, it also creates more competition. Indoor farming startups are taking a variety of approaches to get their greens to consumers, from branded packaged salads to partnerships with major grocers and home grow-it-yourself units. 

Infarm is breaking ranks by opting for a decentralized approach to vertical farming, in lieu of building large-scale centralized production facilities. With the goal of becoming the largest distributed farming network in the world, a quick-to-assemble growing center will help it cover more ground and reach more mouths.

The new model incorporates InFarm’s core technology: cloud-connected, self-learning software that gets “smarter” as it runs, the startup says. It does this by tapping IoT and data analytics tech to capture information from all of its farming units before running it through a “central farming brain.”

InFarm raised $170 million for the first close of its Series C round in September 2020, bringing its total funding to over $300 million.