80 Acres Farms anchored the month with a $115 million raise and acquisition of plant science innovator Plantae Bioscience.  Square Roots entered Japan with a new joint venture.  Three new farms broke ground while BrightFarms closed its Pennsylvania greenhouse.

1. 80 Acres Farms raises $115m

February saw just the one notable fundraise.  80 Acres Farms announced a strategic $115 million capital raise (closed in 2024) and the acquisition of Israeli biotech innovator Plantae Bioscience. The funding round, supported by General Atlantic, Siemens Financial Services, and Barclays Climate Ventures, elevates total investment in the Ohio-based vertical farming operator to $370+ million. While smaller than 80 Acres Farms’ 2021 $160 million Series B, this latest infusion accelerates retail expansion. The simultaneous acquisition of Plantae — known for its Weizmann Institute-partnered plant breeding IP — unlocks crop optimization for flavor, nutrition, and climate resilience. CEO Mike Zelkind positioned the capital-and-technology combo as a response to retailer demand for “climate-agnostic supply chains,”.

Federal funding freezes impacted some indoor ag operations such as Wolfe’s Neck Center. It saw $335,000 in USDA reimbursements paused under its $35 million Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities grant. The Maine-based center is tasked with scaling regenerative practices across 400 farms via soil health training and carbon reduction incentives. It warned its program could shutter by March 2025 without resumed payments, jeopardizing progress for 75 participating farms.

2. Square Roots moves into Japan, international farms expand

Our Indoor Ag Buzz Index™ combines the popularity of a range of indoor farm-related phrases in the media into an index. The index ended the month up, thanks to a raft of announcements on new farms and new corporate partnerships.

On the corporate front, Square Roots entered Japan’s indoor ag market via subsidiary Square Roots Japan. It has partnered with investor Green Prosperity to adapt its modular container farming platform for specialty crops like mizuna, shiso, and spice-enhanced wasabi microgreens. The operation integrates multigenerational farmers’ heirloom cultivation knowledge into cloud-optimized hydroponic “golden recipes,” deploying stackable 320-sq-ft Growing Zones near Tokyo. Co-led by Yasaki Mai and Kotaro Shiba, the venture bridges traditional Japanese agronomy with data-driven systems. It targets urban food processors with hyperlocal production of high-value culinary greens. Unlike capital-intensive vertical farms, Square Roots now emphasizes IP licensing and hybrid growing models.

Three new farms and a closure

BrightFarms closed its 280,000-sq-ft hydroponic greenhouse in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, a five-year-old facility that employed 76 workers. The move prioritizes newer, larger farms as the company shifts toward servicing ~66% of the U.S. population. Its properties in Illinois, Georgia, and Texas are each scalable to 40 acres. The closure underscores operational challenges in balancing scale with geographic dispersion. Legacy CEA assets face competition from next-gen infrastructure optimized for lower-cost peri-urban markets.

There was brighter news elsewhere, with three new farm expansions:

• Harvest London

  plans London’s largest integrated indoor vertical farm at the Canada Water’s Core Building development. Construction is slated to begin in Q3 2025. The 30-tonne annual capacity facility will prioritize hyperlocal distribution, supplying herbs, salads, and specialty crops directly to an onsite food hall and café within the mixed-use complex. Unlike purely production-focused vertical farms, the project will integrate agriculture into urban infrastructure. It targets chefs and retailers requiring traceable, chef-grade ingredients within 100 meters of growth zones.

• Nimble Farms

  is scaling its modular indoor farming operations through a 2025 rebrand and retail partnership. It now supplies Butterhead Living Lettuce to all 152 Tops Friendly Markets stores across New York, Pennsylvania, and Vermont — a 15-fold regional expansion. The Buffalo-based grower leverages climate-controlled shipping container farms. Each yields 1,000 lettuce heads weekly via renewable energy and hydroponics, with three active New York sites including a seven-container Olean facility. It plans to double its footprint by late 2025 target peri-urban clusters of 40 containers in Pennsylvania and New York.  It has a decade-long roadmap for 100+ decentralized sites.

• Stacked Farm

  announced groundbreaking on its A$150m Melbourne vertical farm. It will be a 10,000m² facility set to produce 3.4 million kg annually of herbs and leafy greens like cos lettuce, spinach, and basil. Following the success of its Gold Coast site (operating at full capacity since 2024), the Melbourne Airport-located farm will deploy 25 proprietary robotics systems to automate seed-to-bag workflows.  COO Sam Canavan positioned the project as a cost-efficiency benchmark, targeting “top-tier produce at prices that make sense” for Australian consumers amid rising food costs. Slated to open mid-2026, the farm underscores CEA’s shift toward mega-scale automation.

3. Urban-gro misses estimates, adds two new contracts

The listed sector had a quiet month. Our proprietary Indoor Ag Stock Index™ ended the month down 27%  year on year, mostly due to poor performance in Japanese-listed stocks. Urban-gro reported Q3 2024 revenue of $9.89 million (down 50% year-over-year). It secured two contracts totaling $30 million. One is a $6 million LED lighting upgrade for a North American cannabis operator.. The other is a $24 million Design-Build contract for a Midwest cannabis cultivation facility. The $24 million contract marks the fifth collaboration with the same Midwest client. Both projects are expected to contribute to 2025 revenue. Despite a $3.76 million quarterly net loss, urban-gro’s dual focus on equipment sales and turnkey facility development aligns with cannabis operators’ efficiency priorities.

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Featured image courtesy of Unsplash.

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