Infarm, Aerofarms

Fortune Editors

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CTW.1122.InFarm

Many advocates see vertical farms as key to making agriculture truly “green.” The innovative, A.I.-driven setups allow companies like Infarm and AeroFarms to grow produce with far less water, fertilizer, and pesticides—often in urban environments close to their customers, reducing the CO2 emissions from shipping. Infarm, founded in Berlin in 2013, now sells produce in 10 countries. In June, it announced a new 200,000-square-foot Growing Center near Baltimore that will ultimately produce up to 45 million units of food a year. The company raised $200 million in a recent Series D round, becoming Europe’s first vertical farming startup to pass the $1 billion unicorn valuation milestone; it has more than 30 retail partners in Europe and the U.S.<br />
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AeroFarms, founded in 2004 and headquartered in Newark, held a ribbon-cutting on Sept. 12 on a nearly 140,000-square-foot indoor farming facility in Danville, Va. The new AeroFarms facility will distribute primarily to the mid-Atlantic and Southeast. The company estimates it can reach about 50 million people and more than 1,000 retailers located within a day’s drive of Danville. AeroFarms’ food-retail partners include Amazon Fresh, Harris Teeter, Walmart, Whole Foods, and Ahold Delhaize, whose U.S. brands include Food Lion and Stop &amp; Shop.