Freight Farms launched the first vertical hydroponic farm inside an intermodal shipping container
Freight Farms’ Greenery can produce over 500 varieties of crops such as calendula at commercial scale year-round (Credit: PRNewswire / Freight Farms)
Freight Farms has secured $15m in Series B funding to boot the technical capabilities of its platform to better serve the global network of farmers and corporate partners.
With the latest funds, the company’s total funding has reached to over $28m.
The current investment round has been led by Ospraie Ag Science, an investment firm that backs sustainable solutions to enhance the quality of life for both farmers and society. The existing investor Spark Capital also participated in the Series B funding round.
Freight Farms said that the investment follows the announcement of its national partnership with Sodexo to increase food onsite at educational and corporate campuses across the nation, in addition to supporting ongoing contributions to collaborative research projects and partnerships.
Ospraie Ag Science president Jason Mraz said: “Freight Farms has redefined vertical farming and made decentralizing the food system something that’s possible and meaningful right now, not in the ‘future of food.”
Established in 2010, Freight Farms launched the first vertical hydroponic farm inside an intermodal shipping container called the Leafy Green Machine to democratise and decentralise the local production of fresh and healthy food.
Freight Farms manages the largest network of connected farms in the world
Freight Farms claims that it operates the largest network of connected farms in the world with the Greenery hydroponic farm and farmhand integral IoT data platform.
It has customers in 25 countries and 44 US states ranging from small business farmers to corporate, hospitality, retail, education, and non-profit sectors.
Freight Farms has also collaborated with major organisations such as NASA to study on self-sustaining crop production, as well as with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory to assess the integration of CRISPR seed genetics and vertical farming to generate commercial chances.
Freight Farms CEO Brad McNamara said: “It’s a big step forward for the industry when financial markets recognize and champion the value of creating a distributed food system.
“Aligned on mission-driven growth as a team, there is a massive opportunity before us to scale across global markets, propelling meaningful technology that’s already doing good.”