Europe-based vertical farming firm Infarm this week announced a $200 million Series D. The round, led by the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), follows last year’s $170 million raise. It pushes the company’s total funding to north of $600 million, while placing its valuation “well” north of $1 bililion, earning its place as Europe’s first vertical […]
Fieldin buys fellow agtech firm Midnight Robotics
It was going to be a big couple of years for agricultural robotics well before COVID-19 was on our collective radar. Population growth and environmental concerns have been big drivers for those working to figure out how to feed people in the future. The pandemic, meanwhile, has only accelerated concerns, as many farmers have struggled […]
On ten years of ‘The Vertical Farm’
Roughly two hours pass between my initial email and our first Zoom chat — on a Sunday, no less. I skip the post-gym shower and pop on a baseball cap, because I’m not sure when the opportunity will present itself again. After more than two decades of espousing the benefits of vertical farming around the […]
Verdi aims to give farmers granular control over crop irrigation
Verdi, which launched today at TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield, refers to its smart valve clusters as “swarms.” The term denotes the kind of high-density implementation the company is looking to roll out in farms across North America. Retrofitted with existing irrigation technology, the aim of its system is to give farmers more control over the irrigation […]