Start-up to set up mini indoor farms in shops and eateries

Berlin-based urban farming start-up Infarm has raised $25m to expand its indoor growing system — a soil-less technology better known for furtively growing marijuana — into major supermarket chains and restaurants across Europe.

Founded by three Israeli entrepreneurs, Infarm plans to roll out mini in-store farms with Edeka, Germany’s largest supermarket chain. It is also working with Metro, the country’s second largest grocer.

Infarm wants to help cities become self-sufficient in food production, lowering farming’s environmental footprint.

A single, two-square-metre unit can be located in supermarkets or dining rooms, or the same units can be chained together in central distribution centres to grow hundreds of varieties of plants, each with its own unique microclimate.

“We decided it would be more effective to distribute the farms themselves and farm directly where people live and eat,” cofounder and CE Erez Galonska said.

Industrial-scale US rivals claim to be removing waste from long-distance agricultural supply chains, while Infarm is trying to break down the need for a supply chain itself, Osnat Michaeli, another cofounder, told Reuters.

Plenty Incorporated of south San Francisco, which operates vast indoor fields growing fruit, vegetables and herbs, raised $200m in a 2017 round led by Softbank Vision Fund, marking the largest agricultural tech venture funding.

Infarm said it would have 1,000 miniature urban farms operating across Europe by the middle of 2019, starting with locations in Paris, London, Copenhagen and additional German cities by the end of 2018.

The compact plant-growing system sits on stacked shelves, using hydroponics — a way of growing plants without soil — in a climate- and LED-lighting controlled glass case. It grows everyday and exotic herbs such as small-leaf Greek basil or Peruvian mint and leafy greens, which customers are selling for prices at or below that of plastic packaged herbs.

The company plans to expand its product catalogue beyond some 200 herbs to include tomatoes, chillies, mushrooms, fruits and flowering vegetables.