Vertical farm funding hit $4.8m in July, while we saw major M&A consolidation with Growcer’s acquisition of Freight Farms assets, and significant corporate restructuring in the listed sector.

Funding Returns in July

This month’s vertical farm funding haul of $5m all happened in Europe, with a Swedish saffron farmer and a Spanish leafy greens farmer both closing rounds.

Swedish Startup BlueRedGold Raises €2.73 Million for Indoor Saffron

BlueRedGold, a Swedish indoor saffron startup, has secured €2.73m ($3.15m) in funding led by corporate venture capital firm PINC, the venture arm of Paulig, with participation from accelerator The Food Tech Lab and venture capital firm PolarVentures. The investment will enable the company to scale its automated indoor cultivation system that promises year-round production and multiple harvest cycles annually.

Saffron’s high value – commanding retail prices of $4,000-6,000 per kilogram – has attracted several indoor farming ventures, but controlled environment agriculture costs have proven challenging to justify against field-grown alternatives. Saffron Tech, the Israeli vertical farming company, reports no revenue and had an operating loss of just under $1m last year. Slovakia’s Veles Farming represents another indoor approach, managing 115,000 saffron bulbs in just 50m² (538ft²), with plans to reach 140,000 bulbs at full capacity.  It plans to achieve four harvests annually versus one in field production.

Based on my research, I can see that in the context of vertical farming, “pre-industrial” refers to a facility that is at a stage before full industrial/commercial scale production. Let me revise the paragraph according to the user’s requests.

Spanish Vertical Farming Startup Néboda Raises €1.84m

Néboda, a Spanish vertical farming startup, has secured €1.8m ($2m) in seed funding from investors including private equity firm Clave Capital through Mondragon Fondo de Promoción II, university venture capital firm Unirisco, Galician regional investment manager Xesgalicia, global agrifoodtech accelerator Eatable Adventures, and government innovation agency CDTI through its SICC Innvierte program. The funding round will support construction and automation of the company’s pre-industrial facility and prepare for a Series A round targeted for 2026.

Founded in 2019, Néboda operates a 200m² (2,152ft²) facility in Galicia.  This is a pilot-scale production unit that serves as a proof-of-concept before full commercial operations.  It produces 8,000 kg annually of pesticide-free leafy greens and aromatic herbs sold through distributors in Spain and Portugal. The company claims its technology platform achieves crop yields above industry averages while reducing both operational and capital expenditures through lean manufacturing principles and automation. CEO Iván García Besada stated the company offers “stable and predictable production that ensures a continuous supply at prices comparable to traditional agriculture”.

M&A Continues in July

This month, the industry saw a roll up acquisition, an AI launch and a new farm opening.

Canadian Vertical Farming Startup Growcer Acquires Freight Farms Assets

Growcer, a Canadian vertical farming company with around 125 container farms in the market, has secured $2.6m ($3.0m) in assets from bankrupt U.S. competitor Freight Farms through a court-supervised auction. The acquisition includes intellectual property, customer lists, physical inventory, manufacturing blueprints, software infrastructure, completed Greenery container farms, and spare parts inventory.

Freight Farms filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on April 30, 2025, after 13 years of operations, reporting $594k ($679k) in total assets against $7.0m ($8.0m) in liabilities. The Boston-based company had shipped over 500 farms worldwide before ceasing operations.

Ottawa-based Growcer, which raised CAD 3m ($2.2m) in Series A funding in April 2024 led by building services provider Modern Niagara, former Farm Boy Co-CEO Jeff York, and cleantech investor Jeff Westeinde, positioned itself to support stranded Freight Farms customers. CEO Corey Ellis stated the acquisition combines Growcer’s “expertise in launching and sustaining hyper-local food projects, together with Freight Farms’ global reach in more than 500 locations, including top institutions and community organizations around the world”.  The transaction, which was expected to close by the end of July 2025, represents strategic consolidation in the indoor farm sector.

Square Roots Launches AI Assistant Sage

Square Roots, the Brooklyn-based vertical farming startup co-founded by Kimbal Musk and Tobias Peggs, has launched Sage, an AI-powered assistant designed to support farmers in controlled environment agriculture. The launch comes as the company expands its “farming as a service” business model.

Sage operates as a chatbot integrated into Square Roots’ proprietary Farmer Toolbelt Operating System.  It allows farmers to ask questions about harvesting, equipment handling, system cleaning, and other daily tasks without consulting lengthy documentation. The AI assistant was developed using AWS Bedrock and integrated with Amazon Lambda.  It was trained on internal datasets from tens of thousands of harvest cycles and operational data collected since the company’s founding in 2016.

Malaysian JV FarmByte-Archisen Launches Vertical Farm

FarmByte, a digital agrifood subsidiary of Malaysian state investment firm Johor Corporation (JCorp), has launched Malaysia’s largest indoor vertical farm in partnership with Singapore-based agritech company Archisen Pte Ltd. The RM40m ($8.8m) facility spans 52,000ft² and projects annual production of 306,000 kg of leafy greens including crystal lettuce, mustard greens, and ice plants.

The joint venture, formalized in 2024 under the entity FarmByte Archisen Sdn. Bhd., operates as a 70-30 partnership with FarmByte holding the majority stake.  JCorp had previously invested RM8.2m ($1.8m) into Archisen in November 2023 to establish the partnership. The farm represents the first major project under the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (JS-SEZ), targeting both Malaysia’s National Food Security Policy Action Plan and Singapore’s “30 by 30” initiative to produce 30% of nutritional needs locally by 2030.

Acquisition & Restructuring in the Listed Sector

This month, Edible Garden made a shrimp farm acquisition, while Nature’s Miracle restructured its debt.

Edible Garden Acquires NaturalShrimp Assets for $12m

Edible Garden AG (NASDAQ: EDBL), a CEA company with a $6.7m market cap, has acquired select assets from bankrupt aquaculture firm NaturalShrimp Farms for $12m in preferred stock. The 6.2-acre acquisition includes advanced aquaculture infrastructure, fully equipped laboratories, climate-controlled growing environments, and three patented water treatment technologies covering closed-loop shrimp farming systems and automated water treatment processes.

The transaction was structured through preferred stock, with a NaturalShrimp affiliate investing an additional $3.5m in preferred shares, bringing total investment to $15.5m. The facility will support multiple business lines including expanded herb production, clean-label nutraceutical development, and aquaculture research and development while serving as a strategic warehousing and distribution hub for the Midwest region.

NaturalShrimp had been in court-appointed receivership since September 2024 following loan defaults to Streeterville Capital LLC and Bucktown Capital LLC, after a planned $275m SPAC merger with Yotta Acquisition Corporation collapsed in 2023. The Webster City, IA facility was operating at approximately one-third capacity, producing 400-500 pounds of shrimp weekly primarily for Chicago markets, with current revenues insufficient to cover operating expenses.

Edible Garden, which operates over 5,000 retail locations across the U.S., plans to leverage the acquired patented technologies to optimize water use across its existing greenhouse operations while pursuing its Zero-Waste Inspired® farming initiatives. CEO Jim Kras stated the acquisition “significantly strengthens our balance sheet without the need for additional debt” as part of a capital-efficient growth strategy.

Nature’s Miracle Converts $678k Debt to Equity

Nature’s Miracle Holding (OTCQB: NMHI), a vertical farming technology company with a $1.7m market cap, announced that Big Lake Capital LLC, controlled by CEO Tie “James” Li, has converted $678k of debt into 3.4m shares at $0.198 per share under a convertible promissory note signed in April 2025. The conversion creates 29.5% dilution for existing shareholders, increasing shares outstanding from 8.2m to 11.6m.

The convertible note carries a 10% annual interest rate payable monthly with a one-year term, allowing total borrowing of up to $2m. Following this conversion, no amounts remain outstanding from the initial $600k tranche, while the company retains the ability to borrow an additional $1.3m under the note’s terms. The conversion price represents 110% of the company’s closing stock price on April 11, 2025.

Nature’s Miracle, founded by Li in 2021, provides equipment including horticultural lighting, irrigation systems, and power distribution. The company operates through subsidiaries Visiontech Group and Hydroman, manufacturing grow lights at a facility in Manitoba, Canada.
The company’s stock has declined significantly since its March 2022 SPAC merger with Lakeshore Acquisition II Corp, with market capitalization falling from $88.1m at IPO to the current $1.7m. Recent initiatives include partnerships for mobile vertical farming using electric vehicles in California and a proposed $20m corporate XRP treasury program announced in July 2025.

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