AAA Infarm to grow with $100m

Infarm to grow with $100m

Infarm, a Germany-based indoor farm operator backed by corporate investors Ideo, Bonnier, JR East, and Demand Analytics, has picked up $100m of debt and equity financing, Bloomberg has reported.

Venture capital firms Hanaco Ventures and Atomico provided the capital together with undisclosed existing investors, and it increased Infarm’s total financing to over $400m. It is also looking to raise an additional $250m of funding, according to a Sky News report.

Founded in 2013, Infarm uses cloud-enabled vertical farming technology to operate urban-based indoor farms that produce food more efficiently than traditional agricultural methods. It is planning to expand its production capabilities by building large scale farms expected to cover 500,000 square feet by 2025.

The company had previously secured $170m in debt and equity financing in a September 2020 series C round led by LGT Lightstone, an impact investment subsidiary of asset manager LGT, and backed by media group Bonnier.

Investment group Haniel, Hanaco Ventures, Atomico, TriplePoint Capital, Mons Capital, Astanor Ventures and LocalGlobe’s Latitude fund also participated in the September round. Infarm had received an undisclosed amount of funding from rail operator JR East seven months earlier.

Atomico led the company’s $100m series B round in mid-2019, investing alongside Balderton Capital, Cherry Ventures, Astanor Ventures and TriplePoint Capital. It had raised $25m in a 2018 series A round led by Balderton that included TriplePoint, Mons, Cherry Ventures, LocalGlobe and Quadia.

Design and consultancy firm Ideo and data analysis software developer Demand Analytics took part a $4.5m seed round for InFarm the year before that was led by Cherry Labs and backed by Quadia, LocalGlobe, Atlantic Food Labs and unnamed angel investors. Incubator Archimedes Labs also lists it as a portfolio company.