Top 10 Vertical farming companies in the world

Vertical farming is one of the most fastest-growing sectors in agriculture, with an growing number of start-up companies looking to require advantage of its development.

The practice involves stacking layers of crops vertically in controlled environments to optimise plant growth using artificial lights instead of sunlight.

Vertical farming companies attract many dollars in investments and are said to be increasing demand for fruit and vegetables in urban areas.

Several new technologies, like AI , cameras and sensors which will detect plant diseases, have made the business less expensive and helped firms record healthy profits.Here, NS Energy takes a look at eight of the top vertical farming companies operating today.

1. AeroFarms

This company has won many plaudits for its operation and uses its own patented aeroponic technology to require indoor vertical faming to a replacement level of precision and productivity with small environmental impact and virtually zero risk.

The company has raised a minimum of $138 million in funding since launch in 2004, consistent with CrunchBase. a number of its backers are quite impressive, as this text in Ag Funder News reports.

The term aeroponic farming refers to the method of growing plants in an air or mist environment without the utilization of soil or any earth-like material, which is understood as geoponics

Aeroponic systems enable the assembly of plants using 95 percent less water, which is what AeroFarms says it does.

2. Green Spirit Farms

Green Spirit Farms is started increase money as early as 2013, but has not disclosed the amounts. Area Development reported that the company was investing $27 million in a vertical farming system in Pennsylvania, which would suggest it’s well financed.

And given that it doesn’t seem to have a website of its own, it’s difficult to say what its current and future activities are with full confidence. Owler estimates its annual revenues to be $1.2 million.

3. Bowery Farming

Since launching in 2015, Bowery has emerged together of the fastest-growing start-ups within the sector, having raked in additional than $140m worth of funding.

The New York headquartered company which supplies some restaurants and uses without pesticides and non-genetically modified seeds in its operations.

Bowery Farming claims its methods use 95% less water than traditional agriculture and are 100 times more productive on an equivalent amount of land.

4. Plenty

Although Plenty doesn’t make seem to say aeroponics on its website, it’s difficult to ascertain how it can reduce the water consumption of its vertical farms by 95 percent, because it claims to try to to , without the air-and-mist system as described above.

Like the other big vertical farming companies on this list, Plenty is another one that retails its produce, which include kale and other greens, also as some exotic herbs.

Plenty is perhaps the most important company in terms of the quantity of cash it's raised in funding – approximately $226 million, consistent with CrunchBase..

5. InFarm

Most of the above companies are US-based, but there also are numerous vertical farming startups in Europe and Asia. InFarm is predicated in Berlin, Germany, and has thus far raised approximately $35 million in investment.

The company going into the exotic herbs market, including Thai basil, Peruvian minte. But it’s also growing herbs like dill, basil, sage then on.

It doesn’t say on its website whether it uses hydroponic or aeroponic systems, but it does claim to use 95 percent less water, which might suggest it uses a minimum of one among those. However, it says it uses 75 percent less fertilizer, which could suggest it mixes earth-based processes into its technology. presumably , it uses a hydropic system.

6 BrightFarms

Another of the big-money startups, BrightFarms has thus far raised quite $112 million since its establishment in 2010, consistent with CrunchBase.

But unlike a number of the opposite big companies, it isn’t into aeroponics the maximum amount . It seems more curious about hydroponics, which refers to growing plants with water, or, to be more accurate, mineral nutrient solutions during a water solvent.

Neither aquaponics nor hydroponics use soil. How all compares in terms of quality, efficiency and profitability will probably only become clear a couple of years from now once we see how well these companies have done. likelihood is that they’ll all probably use a mixture of systems.

BrightFarms features a long list of impressive-sounding partners, including Giant, Walmart and Metro Market, among others.

7. Gotham Greens

This company is one among many which have started up within the ny area. Strange to mention it about such a replacement sector, but the marketplace for vertical farming produce could also be saturated – therein city a minimum of .

Gotham Greens has so fair raised a minimum of $45 million since its launch in 2011. it's four production-scale facilities, in ny City and in Chicago, and plans for more in several other states.

And, like BrightFarms, it’s more of a proponent for the hydroponic method, although it's going to well eventually mix it all up and check out different approaches in several facilities.

8. Iron Ox

This company appears to use robotics perhaps quite the others, within the picking process a minimum of , and claims to work fully autonomous indoor farming. It too may be a proponent of hydroponics, and may be a retail-oriented company.

Its products are almost like the others’ – leafy greens like lettuce and kale or things like that. It’s one among the newer startups on the list so tons might change.

Iron Ox has only recently started supplying its products to local markets in California. the corporate has thus far raised over $6 million in funding, consistent with CrunchBase.

9. AgriCool

French AgriCool vertical farming startup uses an aeroponic system to grow fruit and vegetables. It appears to love strawberries quite other produce. Not a nasty idea since strawberries are hugely popular in France, which features a massive traditional agriculture industry.

And its aim is to be within 20 km of its customers and offers a program called Cooltivator, through which customers can find out how to use its technology and possibly become producers and distributors themselves.

So far, AgriCool has quite $41 million in funding since its launch in 2015, consistent with VentureBeat. the corporate also uses shipping containers as “Cooltainers” during which its aeroponic farms are often found out .

10. CropOne

While we couldn’t immediately find what proportion funding CropOne has raised, we did find that it's signed a $40 million venture agreement with Emirates Airlines to create what's described as the world’s largest vertical farming facility in Dubai, UAE.

And, that it'll eventually supply tons of its produce to Emirates Airlines for its flight passengers.

CropOne, founded in 2011, claims to use just 1 percent of the quantity of the water required by traditional agriculture, employing a hydroponic system. It’s also big on big data, with millions of knowledge points collected each day about its plants, which are mainly edible leafy greens.