Freight Farms Closes $17.5M Series B3 for Container Farming Systems

November 21, 2022

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

Containerized vertical farming pioneer Freight Farms announced it closed on a $17.5 million Series B3 co-led by Aliaxis SA, a provider of inventive fluid management solutions that ensure access to water and energy, and Ospraie Ag Science, a leading investor in agtech companies providing smarter, more sustainable ag solutions. This round was also joined by Spark Capital, Stage 1 Ventures, and Alkaline Partners. 

“We’re very excited to partner with Aliaxis on supporting the future growth of Freight Farms, already one of the leading turn-key production systems and software management platforms in controlled environment agriculture,” said Dwight Anderson, CIO, Ospraie Ag Science.

Founded in 2012, Freight Farms realized that urban agriculture required a modular and scalable solution. Within two years, with the mission to democratize and decentralize the production of fresh produce, the startup developed its first vertical hydroponic farm inside an intermodal shipping container called the Leafy Green Machine. And after years of refinement, the company has arrived at its Greenery™ S container farm that is operated in connection with its farmhand® IoT automation software.

Through its work, Freight Farms is creating resilient and self-sufficient communities able to grow fresh local, healthy food 365 days a year by providing tech-driven, vertical, hydroponic container farms for independent purchase, with containers currently being operated by customers in 39 countries, culminating in the world’s largest connected network of farms.

This customer base ranges from small business owner-operators to corporate, hospitality, retail, education, and non-profit sector entities. Such a diverse network reflects a novel distribution model that distinguishes Freight Farms from other vertical farming companies, and enables it to better target areas where the impact would be the greatest, including food deserts, challenging geographies, and severe climates such as Alaska, Scandinavia, Egypt, and the Caribbean. 

“By investing in Freight Farms, we are delivering on our Growth with Purpose strategy to help produce affordable, fresh, and locally produced food with much less water,” said Eric Olsen, CEO, Aliaxis. “Freight Farms is at the forefront of innovation in vertical farming. This market is growing at a CAGR of 25 percent-plus, and is expected to be superior to a $10 billion market by 2026.”

As its technology improves communities’ access to fresh produce through more sustainable and higher-yielding agricultural methods, this funding will support Freight Farms as it expands its mission to empower anyone to grow food anywhere using their versatile, modular container farms and automation software.

Since its last funding round, Freight Farms has seen revenue increase 13-fold due to sales and recurring revenue channels. One such channel is its IoT automated software that allows users to control temperature, lighting, and due to its flexibility, a range of other customizable environmental variables, making it suitable for other indoor grow setups beyond Freight Farms.

In August 2021, Freight Farms opened its new headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts, to accommodate future growth, more in-house training capacity for customers, and a higher level of R&D. These funds will also support personnel growth in key departments with priority being placed on a stronger customer experience team, an expanded engineering team to drive product development, and a more robust sales and marketing team to deepen the company’s presence in sectors with the highest need, such as nonprofits and education.

Dwight Anderson, CIO with Ospraie Ag Science, commented, “Freight Farms continues to beat milestones both in sales and in satisfying customers worldwide because of strong unit economics, consistent product innovation, and the incredible 50+ strong team, without whom none of this would be possible.”

 

~ Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor in chief with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Unconventional Ag. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.

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