Founded in 2017, Babylon Micro-Farms has developed a software platform called BabylonIQ that remotely manages the network of modular vertical farming systems. The data collection capabilities enhance the experience by tracking production and measuring efficacy. The service includes semi-automated vertical farms, software, and supplies wrapped into a flat monthly fee.

In 2022, Babylon launched the Galleri Micro-Farm — a large $15,000 “wall appliance” designed to grow more than 50 different plant varieties for on-site harvest — which has accelerated adoption with clients ranging from MSC cruise lines to retailers like IKEA, Neiman Marcus, and major food service management clients like Aramark. They currently operate well over 150 locations within the healthcare, education, and corporate dining sectors.

Later that year, the Richmond, Virginia-based startup was awarded Emerging Technology Startup of the Year at the 2022 RVA Tech Awards, while its co-founders — Alexander Olesen and Graham Smith — were listed on Forbes 30 Under 30 for Social Impact.

Back to the Galleri Micro-Farm; it is a self-contained system that is capable of producing up to 24 pounds of leafy greens a month.

In April 2023, Babylon closed an $8 million Series A round of financing led by Venture South with participation from Virginia Venture Partners, Hull Street Capital, and New Theory Ventures, among others. Additionally, at that time, the company was awarded a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. The funding was meant to support the company’s growth and help new businesses and communities to grow their own food using Babylon’s remotely managed vertical farms.

“This investment gives us the resources we need to execute our growth plans serving a range of businesses and communities across North America. We have a fantastic team in place who’s worked tirelessly to get the company to where it is today, and it’s great to see strong investor support for our fully distributed approach to vertical farming in a tough macro-economic environment,” Alexander Olesen, CEO & Co-Founder of Babylon Micro-Farms, said at the time of the funding. “We are demonstrating that growing food on-site is a powerful tool for foodservice operations to source high-quality, fresh ingredients while educating and inspiring their communities to eat healthy food”.

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Developed by Ra’anana-based Vertical Field, these sustainable farms are especially useful in so-called “urban food deserts,” which are often lacking in available space for crop cultivation.

The vertical farms subvert this limitation by creating vertical platforms to farm produce on walls. These greenhouse crop-fields are portable and are around the size of shipping containers ranging from 20 to 40 feet, which can fit right in a parking lot — allowing supermarkets and groceries to grow and sell their own home-grown produce right outside the door.

The farms also offer other advantages over traditional farming. For start, their container-like design provides a controlled growing environment, ensuring more sterility and keeping it safe from bugs and therefore – not needing pesticides. It also allows for automated crop management, which limits human contact and allows for consistent quality.

Furthermore, vertical farms produce less waste, as well as a 90% decrease in the amount of water needed.

Perhaps most important, they are not limited by traditional seasons for produce, with all crops being “in season” year-round, having shorter overall growing cycles and longer shelf lives. And by growing produce locally, wasted emissions in the supply chain are reduced.

In 2019, Vertical Fields was recognized among the top startups to watch by Silicon Review and World Smart City.

“Vertical Field offers a revolutionary way to eat the freshest greens and herbs, by producing soil-based indoor vertical farms grown at the very location where food is consumed,” said Vertical Field’s CEO Guy Elitzur, who is hoping to place his vertical farms in retail chains and restaurant establishments in cities throughout the US.

“Not only do our products facilitate and promote sustainable life and make a positive impact on the environment, we offer an easy to use real alternative to traditional agriculture. Our urban farms give new meaning to the term ‘farm-to-table,’ because one can virtually pick their own greens and herbs at supermarkets, restaurants or other retail sites.”

With Vertical Field’s innovative new crop cultivation method, everyone from restaurants, supermarkets, hotels, architects, and urban developers can have their own ready supply of local produce.

Four Israeli supermarkets were among the first to adopt this technology and have started selling pesticide-free greens and herbs harvested from their indoor farms right on the premises — including kale, lettuce, basil, cilantro, dill, parsley, peppermint and spinach.

The development of these vertical farms comes at the perfect time, with the population still growing and projected to reach 10 billion in around 30 years. And, obviously, the need to maintain a sustainable source of fresh produce has become a mounting concern.

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Growtune’s technology involves using artificial intelligence and, when needed – drones, to help urban farmers manage every aspect of their work, from choosing which crops to grow to planning harvest schedules across multiple sites. The platform remotely manages a number of variables crucial to the success of the crop — from indoor microclimate to lighting and nutrient schedules and early detection of disease. As such, it helps farmers increase their financial and physical yields by saving time and energy that used to be spent on machinery maintenance, staff management and pest control.

“The main advantage of indoor farms is that you can be growing all year round, wherever you are,” explained iFarm co-founder and CEO Max Chizhov. “And you don’t need a special technologist or agronomist who knows how to use software or grow stuff.”

The iFarm team is looking for interest from anyone wanting to start an urban vertical farm. The company promotes networks of sustainable food-related businesses and provides support in a range of ways, from technology solutions to investment and retail opportunities.

Specifically, it currently helps customers create farms ranging from 3,000 to 5,000 square meters, with sites in Finland, Switzerland, the U.K., the Netherlands, Andorra, Russia, and Kazakhstan.

As companies rethink logistics and the environment in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, self-contained urban farms hold growing appeal.

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And so Dring and his “partner in crime” Steve Dring created Growing Underground by turning London’s disused World War II air-raid shelter into a salad farm.

Located 33m below street level in Clapham, this urban farm produces salad in a controlled environment — which is said to provide ideal conditions for microgreens, baby leaves and herbs. Specifically, it makes broccoli, salad rocket (arugula), coriander, fennel, pea shoots, sunflower shoots, two types of radish (pink-stemmed and purple), wasabi mustard and red mustard.

Furthermore, its central London location is convenient to distribute the vegetables to hotels, restaurants and shops — reducing the food miles for businesses and consumers. The farm also boasts using 70% less water than conventional agricultural methods.

Growing Underground currently employs 25 people who harvest the crops by hand, but as the farm expands it will move to a more automated harvesting system. It grows crops year-round in a pesticide-free environment, unaffected by the weather and seasonal changes.

Instead of using soil, seeds are planted into mats made out of old carpet offcut, while a spigot supplies nutrients and water to the roots of the plants. Artificial light and warmth is provided by LED lighting. The site is powered with renewable energy.

Currently, Growing Underground is providing produce to wholesalers, local restaurants, and Londoners through Farmdrop — with the idea to hit the retail markets in the near future. Also down the road, it plans to experiment with growing cucumbers and soft fruits, such as strawberries.

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Specifically, it allows for crops to be organized in layers, to maximize the growing space. And while most of the farming processes are fully automated, some elements could be manually controlled — including water levels, light, humidity, and carbon dioxide.

Such a setup, according to Exsilio’s CEO Thomas Tapio, makes it ideal for restaurants and institutional kitchens wanting to produce their own ingredients.

EkoFARMER is a 13-meter long farming module that forms a closed system, requiring only electricity and water to function. This means that the level of humidity, water, and carbon dioxide can be controlled efficiently in order to produce the optimal yield and the best possible flavor. Unlike the majority of other similar systems, EkoFARMER does not use any other nutrients than the ecological cultivation soil developed by Kekkilä.

The module can be placed almost anywhere, it does not occupy much space, and it is also transferable. It can produce approximately 55,000 pots of salad per year, the company claims, which is at least three times the amount produced in a greenhouse — since the cultivated plants are located on multiple floors. Therefore, plants can be cultivated all year round and the cultivation period can be shortened, as the amount of light and humidity can be controlled perfectly.

Exsilio is both selling and leasing EkoFARMER.

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One of the more interesting projects in this field, called La Caverne (the cave), comes from a French startup called Cycloponics that turned an underground garage in Paris into a vertical farm to grow mushrooms, lettuce, and herbs — providing fresh food for local people.

Said parking spaces were built by the government during the 1960’s to 1970’s but they became abandoned as the driving population declined. Cycloponics thus decided to grow vegetables via an urban agriculture project in a garage under the city.

The company’s founders Jean-Noël Gertz and Théophile Champagnat had their first such “gig” in 2017 when they transformed an old military storage room in Strasbourg into an urban farming site. That project has since been refined and brought to Paris, where they rented the 3,500-square-meter (37,700-square-foot) underground garage from a social building for a new farm.

Located underneath La Chapelle, a neighborhood north of central Paris, the farm uses an agricultural technique called hydroponic farming, in which greens are grown under LEDs in nutrient-rich water without sunlight or soil.

La Caverne has clusters of button, shiitake, and oyster mushrooms growing on bricks of composted manure. It also harvests chicory (a coffee substitute), which doesn’t require any sunlight to grow, and microgreens — which sit in beds of nutrient-rich water rather than soil.

Cycloponics launched the farm with the goal of growing veggies year-round and closer to the city compared to traditional outdoor farms. It sells the produce at local farmers’ markets, restaurants, and independent grocery stores — with the goal of reaching the yearly production target of 54 tones.

The company aims to be a part of the “renewal of tomorrow’s cities by transforming unused urban space to produce amazing vegetables.”

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