Brief: Square Roots taps URB-E’s last-mile fleet to deliver CEA grown greens

Disclosure: AFN’s parent company, AgFunder, is an investor in URB-E. 

• Last-mile delivery service URB-E has partnered with Square Roots on delivering the latter’s vertically grown greens to food retailers in urban areas.
• URB-E’s fleet of small electric vehicles is built to haul large loads of product; Square Roots will use the fleet to get leafy greens and herbs from its own farms to its grocery store partners within hours of harvest.
• The partnership will kick off in New York City, where URB-E launched its fleet in 2021 and operates about 1,800 vehicles.

Why it matters:

Square Roots aims to put its container farms as close to consumers as possible, usually in dense urban areas. Besides the farms at its Brooklyn headquarters, the company also operates in Kenosha, Wisconsin and Grand Rapids, Michigan. Separately, Square Roots has an ongoing partnership with Gordon Food Service to build farms near the latter’s distribution centers.

URB-E’s battery-powered electric bikes are designed to tow up to 800 pounds of product in attached, collapsible cargo carts at a fraction of the cost of conventional delivery vans. Headquartered in California, the startup operates a growing fleet in New York City in addition to having a presence in its home state.

Its modular, temperature-controlled container system can better protect food from the elements and enables faster loading and unloading times. Both of these benefits can get Square Roots’ greens from harvest to store shelves in a matter of hours, the companies say, resulting in fresher products for consumers.